Full-length portrait of the King, standing in an interior based on the Viceroy's Building, Delhi, wearing Coronation robes with collar, star and garter of the Order of the Garter. His left hand is resting on his hip while he is holding the sceptre in his right hand. The Imperial State Crown rests on a cushion on a table to the right and three flags are visible in the background, inside a niche.

Kelly was initially commissioned to paint the state portraits of George IV and Queen Elizabeth in 1938. He started immediately and was nearly finished by the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. The paintings were moved from his studio in London to Windsor Castle where Kelly spent the next five years completing his commission. Not only did the Castle provide a refuge for Kelly, the young Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret Rose were sent to the safety of Windsor for the duration of the war while their parents remained at Buckingham Palace.

The backdrop of this painting was originally intended to be the doors of the Crimson Drawing Room. Kelly later changed his mind and asked his friend Sir Edwin Lutyens to make a model, based on the Viceroy's House in Delhi, which makes the painting appear more spacious and stately.