Head and shoulders portrait of the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VIII (1894-1972), facing half to left; wearing a grey suit jacket, enlivened by a crimson and blue striped Guards tie and a white kerchief in his jacket pocket.

A larger portrait of the Prince of Wales in a suit was painted in the autumn of 1921, before the sitter departed on tour for India. It was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1922 (269, whereabouts unknown). This smaller version of the same subject was commissioned by John George Murray, 8th Duke of Atholl (1871-1942) and presented to Queen Mary in 1922 on his retirement as Lord Chamberlain. In a letter to Queen Mary of 23 December 1922 the Duke commented that 'Though not a great picture, it is good style and in tone & of course represents him as he was two years ago.' A further full-length portrait of the Edward, Prince of Wales in Highland Dress, 1923 (Glasgow Museums) may have depended on sittings for these earlier portraits.

In an article published in Strand Magazine in 1922 Borthwick recalled…'Painting the Prince of Wales presented such a difficulty to me. There is a wistfulness, sadness almost about the Prince which is tremendously difficult to get on to the canvas…. He has a wistful shyness, but is not shy; he has self-possession, but is not entirely self-possessed.' He recounted that the Prince asked to be painted in his Guards' tie, one day just before he sailed on the 'Renown' to India.

A drypoint with etching by Borthwick of Edward, Prince of Wales in Highland Costume, 1925, was presented by the artist to hang at Balmoral (RCIN 500359). An etching of the bust of Edward, Prince of Wales, presumably after this painting, was commissioned by for Queen Mary's Dolls' House, 1921-4 (RCIN 926835).

Born in Scarborough in 1871, Borthwick trained at Edinburgh School of Art, in Antwerp and the Acadėmie Julien in Paris under Bougereau. He exhibited widely; at the Paris Salon, the Royal Academy and the Royal Scottish Academy.