This portrait has been said to depict Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend (1675–1738), although Singh catalogued it simply as a half-length portrait of a man. Certainly, the facial features of the sitter are quite different from other known portraits of the 2nd Viscount and, compared to Jervas’s portrait of him (NPG 1755), for example, the sitter in the present painting has a shorter and more rounded nose. RN85 can be compared to another version of the portrait at the Orleans House Gallery, Twickenham (LDORL 00698), signed ‘GKneller’ and dated 1709. Here, the sitter is described as ‘Colonel Townsend’, although the specific identity is unknown.