The portrait was presumably painted for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Mary Adelaide was born on 27 November 1833 in Hanover, Germany. Her father was Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, the youngest surviving son of King George III, and she was Queen Victoria’s cousin. When Victoria ascended the throne in 1837, the Duke of Cambridge and his family returned to London. In the painting Princess Mary holds a biscuit, part of which she has broken off and placed on the nose of Nelson, a Newfoundland dog. Her father noted in his Diary in 1838: ‘I went to see Mr. Landseer’s picture of little Mary which I think is exceedingly like’.