This is one of a set of twelve oval portraits in matching frames of members of the Hanoverian royal family (406587-90 and 401339-46), only six of which are catalogued by Oliver Millar (OM 634-9 and 1218). They would appear all to have been copied from existing portraits of the first half of the eighteenth century. The set was first recorded in Windsor Castle in the 1870s.

This portrait of  Ernest August, Duke of York, the younger borther of George I, is copied from an engraving by Simon of 1718 which is labelled 'from an Originall Picture lately brought from Hanover'. The Duke is shown wearing a curly powdered wig to the shoulders and armour with a lace cravat and a red ermine trimmed mantle held on shoulder by gold clasp; with the ribband of the Garter.