This white marble bust depicts William Pitt the younger, the English Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer, who served during the reign of George III. He is shown with his face slightly raised and turned to the right, wearing a classical cloak falling loosely over his body and gathered on his right shoulder. It is based on the death mask of William Pitt that Nollekens took in 1806.

This bust, as the one of the statesman and orator Charles James Fox (RCIN35430), appealed to the English elite of the time; they were much copied and more than thirty versions of the busts are known to have been made for different collectors.

George IV had commissioned Nollekens to make a series of busts of British politicians and friends between 1805 and 1815; however, this bust of William Pitt, dated 1807, was made for Frederick, Duke of York, George IV's brother. George IV acquired the bust for £107 in March 1827, when the Duke of York's collection was put on sale at Christie's, following his death on 5th January 1827.

The bust is recorded in the Apartment at St James's Palace in 1828. It was sent to Windsor Castle shortly after.