Conversation Piece
by DANCE-HOLLAND, Nathaniel, Oil on canvas, 51 x 67 cm
This picture had traditionally been identified (with no plausibility whatsoever) as “Captain Cook and his friend.” However, the two gentlemen are now identified as Captain (later Admiral) Sir George Pocock (1706-1792) and Captain Digby Dent (died 1761). They are in an interior, before a painting of the bombardment of the Iron Castle at Portobello of November 1739.