Lawrence was the most fashionable and also the greatest portraitist of his generation. He was made Principal Painter to George III in 1792 after Reynolds’s death, and received occasional commissions; however it was only after 1814 that George IV began to employ him in earnest. This portrait was commissioned by George IV at a cost of 300 guineas and was begun in London in 1820 and completed in time to be exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1827. It shows the writer seated in an open armchair, holding a pen on his right thigh near which rests his cane, left elbow resting on the chair arm next to a circular table with papers and writing equipment.