Frederick V is depicted wearing armour and the ribbon of the Order of the Elephant. He succeeded his father, Christian VI, as King of Denmark in 1746. In 1743, he married Princess Louisa, the youngest daughter of George II and Queen Caroline. His second marriage, in 1752, was to Princess Juliana of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.

The artist is unknown but the miniature is a copy from Pilo's half-length portrait from about 1747, at Glorup, a country house in Denmark. It is among a group of rectangular copies on ivory and may be a late eighteenth-century work.