Samuel Smith-Trevor (1806-1865) was a major in the Madras Artillery. He was the son of Charles Trevor, of Bridgwater, Somerset. He married Mary Anne, daughter of T A Gapper in 1851 and died aged 60 in 1865. Maclise has drawn him in uniform, aged twenty four presumably just before his departure to take up his commission in India. Daniel Maclise was an Irish artist who worked in London. He is important as an illustrator/portraitist, particularly as he drew and painted most of the notable literary figures of his day, some of which appeared in Frasers' Magazine between 1830 and 1836. Maclise was also an important historical painter producing, at the request of Prince Albert, murals for the Palace of Westminster and the `Comus' frescoes in the garden pavillion at Buckingham Palace which have since been destroyed. In the 1830s and 1840s he exhibited regularly, mainly showing subjects from British history and Shakespeare. The main influences on his work in this period were firstly Delaroche for his historical reconstructions and secondly Rubens for his energetic and crowded compositions and free handling of paint.