This is a portrait of James Norrington painted for him after his promotion to an Admiral. I like to imagine that it was Beckett who commissioned a portrait of him, and put him in this very specific pose that I'll explain in a moment.
As you can see, it looks a bit different from XVIII century style portrait, and that's not only because my primary-colours focused colour palette. I wanted this painting to feel more... rustic, more gritty, to show that this James Norrington is not the same man that Port Royal send off on the hunt for Captain Jack Sparrow; this is James Norrington who caused and witnessed deaths of hundred of people under his command.
I used harder, more pronounced brushstrokes – that you would identify more with the realism period, that with neoclassical or academic paintings of the era and their obession to make everything look soft and perfectly mixed (the fini technique) – to show that he had experienced the roughness of the world, that it follows him still, and how it changed his vision of the world.
There is another thing that I borrowed from the realism movement of the XIX century. I, actually, used not one, but two colour palettes for this piece. My usual, and one taken directly from Gustave Courbet, probably the most imporant and famous realist painter. He used more earthy, grayish tones, and that's why you can actually spot the reminicents of mars black in the painting (I don't have black on my own colour palette).
Now we can get back to what I said about the imaginary commissioning of the potrait. As I said, I like to imagine that it was Beckett who did it. James would probably still hold too much guilt and shame after the disaster that was the sinking of HMS Dauntless. I think that James Norrington wanted his old life back so much, not only because of how humiliated he felt, but also because he was so struck with guilt and deep in his trauma, that he wanted to literally "get back his life" and live as if none of it has ever happened, so he didn't have to face the fatal consequences of his actions.
So why Beckett? I think that he knew that, he knew about all of Norrington's shame and guilt, and so he wanted to poke the wound. That's why Norrington isn't actually wearing his coat; it's draped over him, he's forced to clutch it with his hand so it won' fall off. A painful reminder that this is all a ruse, that, as easily as Beckett gave him the admiralcy, he can take it away.
And James knows it, he knows what is going on here, but he is still gripping this coat, unable to resist, desperate to hold onto this life as it literally slips away from him. Maybe it's because of pride, maybe it's the fear of having to confront the past and what it might mean to him.
Whatever the reason really is, he is still gripping the coat. Hoping, against all odds, that maybe if he holds onto it a little longer, it will all go away.
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