A three-quarter length portrait, turned slightly to the right, gazing at the spectator, dressed in brown cloak and full white sleeves and lace cravat. Full wig. Leaning his left arm on a pedestal. Brown curtain top right. Inscribed on the back 'Lord Townshend by P. Lely'. The gentleman-painter Sir Ralph Cole's first wife was a Windham.
Horatio Townshend worked for the Restoration of Charles II and was one of the deputies sent to The Hague in 1660. Created Baron Townshend, 1661, and Viscount, 1682, he married Mary Ashe, daughter of Sir Joseph Ashe, as his second wife, in 1673, and had three sons by her (his first wife had been Mary Lewkenor, daughter and heiress of Sir Edward Lewkenor, but had no issue). He was, through her, the brother-in-law of William Windham I.
Although framed as a pair to NT 1401203, the present portrait is not designed as such, nor is by the same hand, since the portrait of Mary Ashe, Lady Townshend is either a fully autograph Lely, or painted by him with the assistance of his studio, whereas the present picture has simply taken a standard Lely pattern as its model.