This painting is an extension of the similar image in pastel (RCIN 452805); though both are signed and dated 1767, it is likely that this one came second. The idea for the composition came from Annibale Carracci's Madonna and Child with the Infant John the Baptist (acquired by George III in 1766, RCIN 404762, called Il Silenzio because the Virgin makes the same silencing gesture to warn the Baptist not to wake the Christ Child.

George IV had the portrait at Carlton House where the artist was identified as Allan Ramsay and where at some time the composition was reduced to a half length by folding the canvas up the back of a much reduced stretcher. It was restored to its present full size in the early twentieth century.