The Hon. Charles Gore was a Lincolnshire landowner, accomplished sailor, amateur boat builder and marine artist. The family lived in Southampton from 1757 to 1773, and Gore spent time sailing around the coast of Britain, visiting the Channel Islands and the northern French coast on several occasions. In 1773 his wife’s health led them to travel abroad and Gore embarked upon a Grand Tour visiting Rome, Naples, Leghorn (Livorno), Florence, Corsica, Nice and Marseille amongst other places, including in 1777 Sicily with Richard Payne Knight (1750-1824) and Jacob Philipp Hackert (1737-1807). His drawings from this visit were later worked up by John Robert Cozens (1752-1797). From 1791 he was a member of the Ducal Court in Weimar with his daughter Eliza, who wrote a biography of her father.