Editing Joshua Reynolds (section)

===''Lord Heathfield''===
[[File:George Augustus Eliott, 1st Baron Heathfield - by Joshua Reynolds - Project Gutenberg eText 19009.jpg|thumb|''[[George Augustus Eliott, 1st Baron Heathfield|Lord Heathfield]]'' (1787)]]
In 1787, Reynolds painted the portrait of [[George Augustus Eliott, 1st Baron Heathfield]], who became a national hero for the successful defence of [[Gibraltar]] in the [[Great Siege of Gibraltar|Great Siege]] from 1779 to 1783 against the combined forces of [[Kingdom of France|France]] and [[History of Spain (1700-1808)|Spain]]. Heathfield is depicted against a background of clouds and cannon smoke, wearing the uniform of the [[15th The King's Hussars|15th Light Dragoons]] and clasping the key of the Rock, its chain wrapped twice around his right hand.<ref>McIntyre, p. 472.</ref> [[John Constable]] said in the 1830s that it was "almost a history of the defence of Gibraltar".<ref name="ODNB" /> [[Desmond Shawe-Taylor]] has claimed that the portrait may have a religious meaning, Heathfield holding the key similar to St. Peter (Jesus' "rock") possessing the keys to Heaven, Heathfield "the rock upon which Britannia builds her military interests".<ref name="ODNB" /><ref>Desmond Shawe-Taylor, ''The Georgians: Eighteenth-Century Portraiture and Society'' (London: Barrie & Jenkins, 1990), p. 49.</ref>