Winterhalter was born in the Black Forest where he was encouraged to draw at school. In 1818 he went to Freiburg to study under Karl Ludwig Schüler and then moved to Munich in 1823, where he attended the Academy and studied under Josef Stieler, a fashionable portrait painter. Winterhalter was first brought to the attention of Queen Victoria by the Queen of the Belgians and subsequently painted numerous portraits at the English court from 1842 till his death.

Prince Ernest is depicted in uniform. He was 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. In 1853 Queen Victoria was putting together a collection of portraits 'of the Sponsors & other Royalties, who have been here this year'. This portrait was one of those to be set into the panelling in the Bow Room in Buckingham Palace. Prince Ernest had married Queen Victoria's half-sister, Feodora, in 1828. The Queen described him as of unblemished character, upright, straightforward and devoted to his wife. After he died in 1860, Feodora wrote to Queen Victoria 'I will have Winterhalter's picture copied and lithographed it is the best'.

Signed and dated: F Winterhalter / 1853. Inscribed on the back with the names of the artist and sitter and the date, 1853