The King is shown in a painted oval, wearing the Danish Order of the Elephant. He was presumably painted while in London in 1768. The print after this picture (published by E. Fisher on 1 April 1769) specifies that it was painted by Dance for George III.

Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there were close links between the British and Danish monarchies (both Protestant). Christian was the son of George II's daughter, Princess Louise (seen playing with a dog in Hogarth's family group, RCIN 401358), and in 1766 married George III's youngest sister, Princess Caroline Matilda (seen in RCIN 404334). Unfortunately he was mentally unstable and she had an affair with the King's physician and councillor, Johann Struensee (1737-1772). In 1772 the couple were arrested, Stuensee executed and Caroline divorced and exiled to Celle in George III's Hanoverian domains, where she died.