Analyse the compositional strategy and style of Joshua Reynolds' "Admiral Lord Hood" (1783).

Standing proudly as he rests his hand on a rock next to him is naval officer Lord Samuel Hood, depicted in the foreground of a sea-battle scene from the Battle of All Saints, one of the key military successes of his career. Painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds, arguably the most successful and influential eighteenth-century British portraitist, it is a clear example of his artistic practice.Not only did Reynolds represent the sitter’s physical likeness, but he aimed to elevate it to a more general, idealised version in line with the grand style. The quality of a portrait was for him proportional to the mental labour the artist employed in producing it. Hence, Reynolds did not depict Lord Hood as he observed him in his studio, but aimed to enhance his image, presenting him as a social type rather than a mere individual. To do so, he employed a wide range of pictorial techniques such as colouring, light and composition that would have represented him in a “poetical manner”, dignifying him with intellectual grandeur, virtue and politeness.Essential in Reynolds’ portraiture method was the construction of a narrative that would have contributed to represent the sitter’s personality and identity. However, if the artist often relied on the use of allegories to attain such goal, in the case of Lord Hood he opted for an historical scene. Such choice makes the painting an interesting artistic case combining portraiture and history painting and therefore challenging a sharp distinction between the two artistic genres.