Captain George K. H. Coussmaker by Joshua Reynolds

Joshua Reynolds painted Captain George K. H. Coussmaker in 1782, and the portrait now hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The captain was twenty-three, an ensign in the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards who would rise to captain but never see active service. He sat for Reynolds twenty-one times over two months, and the horse was brought in for eight sessions of its own. The fee was 205 pounds, plus 10 guineas for the frame, an enormous sum that bought an image of effortless military command for a man who retired from the army at thirty-six.

Look first at the reins. They loop loosely through the gloved fingers rather than being gripped, the whole point is that mastery over a powerful animal is so complete it requires no visible effort. Then find the reddish hound dozing at his feet, so low and warm-toned it almost vanishes into the shadow. The dog is a loyalty emblem, yes, but it also quietly shifts the portrait from the parade ground to the country estate, reminding us this is a gentleman who hunts.

The painting stayed with the Coussmaker family for over a century. William K. Vanderbilt bought it in 1884 and later bequeathed it to the Met, where curators call it an exceptionally fine example of Reynolds's late portrait style. The brushwork on the scarlet coat is a Reynolds signature: from a distance it reads as rich wool, but step close and it dissolves into loose, confident strokes of pure paint.

Coussmaker died in 1801 at forty-two. His daughter Sophia became Baroness de Clifford. The soldier who never fought is remembered because he paid to be painted by the man who revolutionized British art, and because Reynolds, who knew exactly what a portrait was for, gave him the full Grand Manner treatment anyway.