This painting is a copy after the portrait of Prince Ernest (RCIN 405107) by prominent nineteenth-century court portraitist Franz Xaver Winterhalter. The original was completed in 1854 and this copy by William Corden the Younger was commissioned by Queen Victoria as a present to her mother the Duchess of Kent in the same year.

Ernst I, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg was the husband of Feodora, Princess of Leiningen, half-sister to Queen Victoria by their mother's first marriage. The pair married at Kensington Palace in 1828 before returning to Germany, though Prince Ernst had no actual domain, the principality having been mediatised into Württemberg in 1806. Following a visit to Windsor, Queen Victoria was moved to comment that "The Hohenlohes are the nicest royals, tho' in fact they are not royal, he being a subject, and by no means a rich one…" Despite the separation, Queen Victoria maintained a close relationship with her sister and brother-in-law, describing Prince Ernst as "ever a kind and affectionate brother to us". After his death in 1860, Feodora wrote to the Queen "I will have Winterhalter’s picture copied and lithographed it is the best".

This portrait shows Prince Ernest in his military uniform as a Major-General in the armies of Hanover and Württemberg. He wears the collars and stars of the Bath and the Guelphic Order; the star of the Family Order of Saxe-Ernest and badges which include the Juanita Order of Prussia and St John of Malta.