Little is known about the life of the subject of this painting, Jacob Salvador. He was born in London, one of Moses and Sara Lopes Suasso Salvador’s seven children. His uncle, Francis Salvador, a South Carolina plantation owner, entered the annals of colonial American Jewish mythology as both the first Jew elected to public office in the colonies, when he was selected for the Provincial Congress in 1774, and the first Jew to die fighting in the Revolutionary War.

Sephardi merchants, the Salvador family operated predominantly between London and Holland. It is not known when exactly, but Jacob seems to have spent some time in America. He eventually returned to London, where died in 1845.