Dr. Rice Charleton was a senior physician at the General Hospital in Bath (later the Mineral Water Hospital), a doctor, and author of "A Treatise on the Bath Waters". Bath was, and is, famous for the waters which people would come and take for their health benefits.

 

Due to the above positions, Dr. Rice Charleton was prosperous, with a country seat at Woodhouse in Gloucestershire and a town house in Alfred Buildings in Bath. Through being the family's doctor, he became Gainsborough's friend and patron. Thomas Gainsborough, who was soon to become one of the leading artists of the day, often paid his medical bills with paintings, and Dr. Charleton eventually possessed six landscapes as well as this full length portrait. Ozias Humphrey, a Bath miniaturist, described it excitedly as "a walking figure in a familiar dress ... which absolutely seemed, upon first entering the room, like a living person".

Dr. Charleton stands unaffectedly with a kind expression, his solidly modelled calves firmly planted on the ground, his cane directing our gaze back into the landscape while he enjoys the pleasures of nature and perhaps thinks of his own family seat.

 

This work was created as payment to the doctor, but also serves to show the status of this man of means, who has worked to become affluent and now enjoys a certain high-level role in society who is worthy of having his portrait painted. The painting shows the doctor as being well-dressed, in a setting possibly reminiscent of his country seat. Full-length portraits were generally more expensive and so possessing one would say something about the owner's wealth.