William I, King of Prussia and German emperor is shown in three-quarter-length, standing, facing the spectator. He wears the uniform of a Prussian General Field-Marshal and a remarkable display of orders and badges. They include the collar of the Hohenzollern House Order; the ribbons of the Black Eagle and the Order of St George of Russia; the stars of the Garter, the Bath, St George, the Order 'pour La Mérite', the Iron Cross and Charles XIII of Sweden; and the badges of the Iron Cross, 'Pour La Mérite', the Red Eagle, the Royal Saxonian Military Order of St Henry and St George of Russia. The smaller badges run from the Iron Cross, the Red Eagle, St George of Russia, the Hohenzollern House Order and the Austrian Order of Merit to (?) the Hesse and the Mecklenburg-Schwerin Military Crosses; in between is a series of military service and campaign medals.

This is a copy of the same type as RCIN 405183 after a portrait by Von Angeli painted in Berlin, signed and dated 1874 and now in the Nationalgalerie, Berlin. It was probably painted for the sitter's godson, the Duke of Connaught, whose brand is on the stretcher and the frame.