In June 1729 Smibert painted a portrait of then-Major Paul Mascarene, his seventh American sitter. The painting recalls his English, period portrait of Lieutenant General Charles Otway, 1724 (Royal Sussex Regiment, Chichester) in its use of the convention of half armor for a military commander. The armor is at least a century earlier in its design, which presumably was taken from Smibert’s treasury of drawings and engravings. The armor, a highly unusual feature in Boston portraiture, with its virtuoso highlights and reflections, was a showpiece of Smibert’s abilities and could not fail to catch the eye of the poetizing Mather Byles, who mentioned it in the line, "and studious Mascarene asserts his arms."
The portrait also contains a landscape background and a small still life of a map and drafting instruments. The still life refers to Mascarene’s coastal survey of Nova Scotia, which could have served as the basis for the fortified harbor seen in the portrait. Smibert was one of the few early colonial artists who sometimes painted specific, actual landscapes as backgrounds in his portraits. Whether it depicts an actual or proposed fortification, it apparently is not Annapolis Royal, the location with which Mascarene is chiefly associated and for which he attempted to improve the fortifications.
Paul Mascarene was born Jean-Paul Mascarene in France in 1684 or 1685 of a family of Huguenots later forced to leave the country after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. He was educated in Geneva and in 1706 began a military career in England. In 1708 he was in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, preparing troops for an expedition against Canada, and in 1710 he was the captain who took possession of Port Royal (renamed Annapolis Royal) in the campaign that won Nova Scotia for Britain. He was thereafter very involved in the military life and civil government of the province, although he spent much time in Boston, where he married Elizabeth Perry, built a large brick house, and raised a family. He was known as a man of considerable learning and taste. In a letter of 1740 he referred to "four large pictures of Mr. Smibert" in his possession. Between, 1740 and 1749 he was chief administrator of Nova Scotia during the campaign against Louisbourg. He became a major general in 1758 and died in Boston in 1760.
