The design of this portrait dates from 1637 or early 1638. The Prince does not wear the insignia of the Garter (he was installed on 21 May 1638) and the portrait is so close in type to the figure of the Prince in the painting of The Five Eldest Children of Charles I of 1637 as to suggest it derived from the same sittings. It was painted for the royal family portrait gallery in the Cross Gallery at Somerset House and its unusual shape may have been dictated by its original position there, possibly over a door. The canvas does not seem to have been painted by Van Dyck himself, with the exception of the face. There are pentimenti (changes by the artist) in the outlines of the shoulders and upper left arm and in the shape of the head, and the fall of the curtain nearest the Prince was originally lower. It is generally accepted that the portrait of the Prince at Welbeck Abbey, predates this one.