Robert Fullerton (1773-1831) was the governor of Penang from 1824 to 1826 and subsequently the first governor of the Straits Settlements upon its establishment in 1826, seving in that capacity until 1830. This portrait was most likely painted in Fullerton's younger days when he was an East India Company officer stationed in Madras. The painter of the portrait is almost certainly George Chinnery, a London born artist who painted in Madras from 1802 to 1807 before heading to Calcutta and later the China coast.
