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 and painted in 1803, in which year it was exhibited at the Royal Academy. George III greatly admired it at that exhibition describing it as ‘a true Representation of the man without artificial fancies of dress &c’.

The sitter was a lawyer and statesman, serving as Lord Chancellor 1778-83 and 1783-92; a supporter of George III, he nevertheless held secret negotiations with the Prince of Wales (the future George IV) during the regency crisis of 1788.

Lawrence has based his portrait on the 1658 Self-Portrait of Rembrandt, now in the Frick Collection.