Painted for Queen Victoria during the visit of the two princes to England with their parents between May and July 1839. The Queen had not seen them since their previous visit in 1837 and wrote: 'They are so much grown and improved, dear boys; Ernest, 8 and a half, a fine boy; Edward, 6, quite lovely; but both kept their old faces; quick, lively and clever boys, making a great noise; remembering everything from 2 years ago' (RA QVJ: 22 May 1839). At the end of their visit she wrote: 'The two dear (though very naughty) boys came and stayed in my room till near 12, alas for the last time. Edward was quite my Court Fool – the funniest, drollest, most graceful and engaging though naughty little animal that can be conceived. Ernest, a good studious boy, but seen to disadvantage with his younger brother, whom he imitated, and being a very big and rather clumsy though very fine boy, it didn't do well … The dear children, alas! seemed glad to go home' (RA QVJ: 14 July 1839). The dates of Ross's sittings are not recorded but the miniature had been completed by 4 August 1839 when Queen Victoria wrote: 'I showed Lord Melbourne some of Ross's Miniatures, amongst which were … a beautiful one of Ernest and Edward with Islay (which is to be for me) and which Lord M. admired extremely; and he said "Very like; and a very pretty picture; I think the youngest the likest"  ' (RA QVJ).

The Queen's Skye terrier, Islay, which she had only acquired in March 1839, was to be painted on three occasions by Landseer, including, in June 1839, with the same 'great Maccaw' that appears in this miniature (403194; Royal Collection). Islay had been her 'faithful little companion of more than 5 years' (RA QVJ) by the time of his death on 26 April 1844. The Queen owned a number of birds, including a Brazilian parrot presented by Lady William Russell in 1834 and a lory given to her by her uncle, Duke Ernest I of Saxe-Coburg, in 1836. In 1830 Ross had painted one of his most successful group portraits, Georgina Charlotte Bankes (née Nugent) and her three elder children with the family parrot (Kingston Lacey, Dorset, National Trust), and in this miniature he again increased the spontaneity and liveliness of the image by his inclusion of family pets. The composition links glance and gesture into a careful framework which, without being contrived, unites all four animated subjects within the painting. Ross rarely included marine landscapes in his backgrounds; the coastal view in this case heightens the sense of energy and freshness within the image and hints at skills as a landscape artist which Ross was never fully to exploit.