A half-length portrait to right, wearing a russet velvet coat with gold buttons and gold embroidered buttonholes, a breastplate and a fair full-bottomed wig. The portrait is in a painted oval and a flagship flying a vice-admiral's red flag at the fore is in the right background. The painting is inscribed 'Sir Charles Wager First Lord Admiralty', which was added two years after the portrait was painted.

In 1718 Wager was appointed a commissioner of the Admiralty, a position he held until 1733 when he became First Lord. During this time he took a fleet to the Baltic in 1726, whose presence thwarted the ambitions of Russia, and in the following year took reinforcements to Gibraltar, then under siege from the Spaniards. He continued in commands in the Channel and the Mediterranean until 1731, the year of this portrait. The Navy benefited greatly from Wager's constant interest and care for improvement in its conditions of service and he was an early innovator in the use of citrus fruits against scurvy.