Catalogued by Murray as attributed to John Baptist Closterman, but the association with Closterman is rejected by 0. Millar and M. Rogers (as 'not probable'). The pose matches that of Kneller's 1690 portrait of the shipbuilder Sir Anthony Deane holding a drawing of a ship (National Portrait Gallery). An attribution to Beale has been suggested independently by Allen, K. Hearn and T. Barber (oral communications, 1997). However, an attribution within the Riley-John Closterman orbit was offered as a possbility by both Millar and Rogers. The sitter holds an anatomical drawing and this has suggested an identification with the physician-poet Sir Richard Blackmore (d.1729), to whom he bears some resemblance (cf. John Closterman, cat. exh. National Portrait Gallery, 1981, no.13). There is also perhaps some resemblance to the physician Sir Edmund King (1629-1709).
