Hoppner was the son of a German physician working at the court of George II; he was encouraged to become a painter by George III, studying drawings in the Royal Collection as well as attending the RA Schools. This is an example of an ‘Eton leaving portrait’: a depiction of a distinguished boy given to his tutor (usually after having been specifically requested). The future Prime Minister is here shown in the mock Tudor or Jacobean dress associated with the Etonian festival of ‘Montem’, when the boys dressed up and went to frolic on a small hill (now part of Slough) - ‘ad montem’ means ‘to the mountain’ in Latin. Melbourne gave this portrait to Dr Langford in 1796, but after his death it was sold (in fact to the sitter’s half-brother Charles Lamb (1784-1834)), rather than joining the impressive collection of leaving portraits which still reside at Eton College. When Queen Victoria and Lord Melbourne visited to the Provost of Eton in 5 June 1838 she asked why her beloved advisor was not represented in the array of portraits. Melbourne promised to find this portrait for the College and make good the omission. However when he showed the portrait to the Queen in 1841, she decided that she would like to keep it for herself, as it was, in her words ‘a beautiful and spirited picture though not quite finished’.