Focus on Portrait of Omai and analyze the Painting.
Reynolds portrayed Mai as an exotic figure—an idealised depiction echoing Jean-Jacques Rousseau's concept of a noble savage.  He stands barefoot, alone in a rural Arcadian landscape with unusual palm-like trees.  He is wearing flowing "oriental" white robes resembling a toga but perhaps intended to be tapa cloth, and a white turban or headdress of possibly Turkish or Indian inspiration, a style not known in Tahiti.  His adlocutio pose was inspired by the Apollo Belvedere; it emphasises the tattoos on his hands, but also makes classical allusions. (Reynolds first used the pose in 1752, after visiting Rome, in a portrait of Commodore Augustus Keppel.)
The work measures 90 × 57 inches (230 × 140 cm).  It was painted in around 1775, and was one of 12 portraits exhibited by Reynolds at the Royal Academy's eighth exhibition in 1776, to great acclaim.  It was praised as a good likeness of the subject.  The other paintings exhibited by Reynolds in 1776 included a full-length portrait of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire in a similarly idyllic setting.
A pencil preparatory sketch is held by the National Library of Australia as part of the Rex Nan Kivell Collection, and Yale University Art Gallery has an oval oil sketch.  The painting was reproduced as a mezzotint by Johann Jacobé, published by John Boydell in 1780.
Johann Jacobé adlocutio Jean-Jacques Rousseau tattoo Arcadia Tahiti Apollo Belvedere Augustus Keppel noble savage toga mezzotint Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire tapa cloth Yale University Art Gallery Royal Academy National Library of Australia John Boydell Rex Nan Kivell