Sir Horace Mann, the British minister at Florence, commissioned Astley to paint this portrait and the one of his brother, Galfridus, as presents for Walpole, who had stayed with him on the Grand Tour. On 23 March 1752 Walpole wrote Mann: "Your picture is arrived, which he [Conway] says is extremely like you: Mr Chute cannot bear it, says it wants your countenance and goodness, that it looks bonny and Irish. I am between both and should know it--to be sure there is none of your wet-brown-paperness in it, but it has a look with which I have known you come out from your little room . . . au reste, it is gloriously coloured."