Beechey gave the first version of this portrait to the Royal Academy in 1798 as his ‘Diploma Work’ (compulsory donation made upon being elected academician). This repetition was painted in 1803 for the sitter’s brother and Queen Victoria’s father, Edward, Duke of Kent. There are sufficient changes made to the style of the hair to suggest that this important commission was more than a mechanical replica of the earlier picture. Beechey was paid 80 guineas for the portrait and 10 guineas for the frame in 1807.

This version and the other in the Royal Academy both belong to a type of English portrait influenced by the work of Rembrandt, in the thick application of paint and the dramatic contrasts between areas of encrusted precision (seen particularly in the details of the uniform of the 10th Light Dragoons) and vaporous indistinctness.