Turner probably painted this self-portrait in 1799, when he was twenty-four. In the same year he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy, at the youngest permissible age. Turner was the son of a Covent Garden barber but, despite these lowly beginnings, he presents himself here as a well-dressed young gentleman. In the same year, consolidating his recent success, he moved to a fashionable part of London: Harley Street.

The frontal pose accentuates the intensity of Turner's determined gaze. However, as far as we know, this was the last self-portrait he ever painted.