James Caulfield was an Irish statesman and writer, and Commander-in-Chief of the Irish Volunteers. He was created Earl of Charlemont in 1763. This miniature's origins are in a commission for a Gold Medal for the Royal Irish Academy, founded in 1785, of which Charlemont was the first President. The artist, Horace Hone, had a sitting from Charlemont in 1788 in Dublin, producing first a watercolour on card, then a miniature on ivory (now in a private collection), then this miniature in 1789, and finally an enamel copy in 1805. The enamel was inscribed on the back: James, Earl of Charlemont / This enamel copied from a Water / Colour Picture the same size which / Earl Charlemont sat for and from / which picture the medal was made, / for the Irish Royal Academy. / The Original Picture and the Enamel / were both painted by Horace Hone A.R.A. / & miniature painter to His Rl Higss / the Prince of Wales, / the watercolour picture painted / by him in Dublin in the year / 1788 and this Enamel in / London in the year 1805.

Horace Hone (1754-1825) was born in London and entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1770. He was appointed Miniature Painter to the Prince of Wales in 1795. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1772 to 1822 and became an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1779. In 1782, Hone went to Ireland and ran a successful practice in Dublin, but work declined after the Union of England and Ireland and he returned to London in 1804.

Signed and dated on the right HH [in monogram] 1789. Inscribed by the artist on the backing paper in ink: b.1728 d 1799. / The Rt: Hon: / James Caulfield / Ist Earl of Charlemont / painted in Dublin / by Horace Hone / A.R.A / 1789.