Three-quarter-length portrait of King George V, standing, wearing the service dress of a Field-Marshal.

This painting of King George V (1865-1936) probably relates to the panel that Frank O' Salisbury was commissioned to paint for the Royal Exchange in 1917. The panel was to commemorate the visit of King George V and Queen Mary to the Battlefields in France in July 1917. The National Army Museum holds a study for the panel and the King can be seen in a similar stance, leaning on a stick, holding his binoculars with his left hand.

Salisbury recorded in his autobiography 'Sarum Chase' that the King sat for him at Buckingham Palace on 21 October 1917: 'He gave me three hours, which I think must be a record sitting, and he was so pleased with it that he asked me to finish it up for him, and his valet came to my studio afterwards and put on the King's uniform, so that I could paint the ribbons and finish the tunic'.

This was Salisbury's first major project and further royal commissions followed. For example; The Thanksgiving Service at St Paul's' 1919 (RCIN 404459) and The Passing of the Unknown Warrior, 1920 (RCIN 404458), and the 'Jubilee Thanksgiving' of 1935 (RCIN 404703)

An earlier visit to the Front by the King in 1914 had been recorded by the artist Herbert Arnoud Olivier (see RCIN 405840).