File:Rear-Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, 1748-1810, 1st Baron Collingwood RMG BHC2625.tiff

A full-length portrait to the right, showing Collingwood in rear-admiral’s full dress uniform of the 1795–1812 pattern (with inaccuracies), wearing his medals for the First of June, St Vincent and the Trafalgar. He stands at the break of the poop learning on a gunwale with his left hand under his chin and a telescope under his right arm. A pre-1801 red ensign is behind him on the right.

Collingwood was Nelson's second-in-command at the Battle of Trafalgar and commanded the lee column there, his flagship, 'Royal Sovereign', being first into action. Collingwood was also an old and close friend of Nelson's, and had first served with him in the American Revolutionary War. On Nelson's death during the Battle of Trafalgar, Collingwood assumed command of the fleet. He was also created Baron Collingwood for his part in the victory and appointed Nelson's successor as Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean. He never saw England again after Trafalgar, only being relieved in 1810 on grounds of his health. He died on the way homeand only his body returned for burial with Nelson's in St Paul's Cathedral.

This full-length was painted by Henry Howard in 1827 and presented to the Naval Gallery of Greenwich Hospital by Collingwood's family in 1828. The National Portrait Gallery also has a half-length version by Howard, dated 1828. Both are based on another portrait by Giuseppe Politi, which was painted at Syracuse in 1807. The Museum's 'Preliminary Descriptive Catalogue of Portraits' (1961) did not mention Politi but suggested that Howard may have used a miniature taken from the life. This may be a false inference from the fact that there are squared drawings by Henry Bone (also in the NPG), either copying an oval original, or to make an oval miniature in enamel, or both. However, Bone often did this from full-size pictures and the format of Politi's remains to be confirmed.