Philips was a painter of portraits and conversation pieces who, according to George Vertue, was encouraged by people of fashion and ‘even some of the Royal Family’. This is one of a pair of full-length portraits (OM 531-2, 405647-8) of the Prince and Princess of Wales, one of which (this one) is signed and dated 1737, which suggests that both were painted by Philips at that time. There are several versions of these popular designs. The Princess is shown wearing ornate silver robes with red, ermine-lined cloak and a small coronet upon her head, in a columned interior, before a throne-chair, decorated by with Prince of Wales feathers. In any formal pair of portraits the female hangs on her husband's left hand (on the right as you look at the pair); this means that her gesture here does not point to her husband but rather to something beyond the pair.