In her diary for 4 April 1794, Queen Charlotte noted that she 'sate for my Picture to Mr Miles'. In the following year, in the Royal Academy catalogue, Edward Miles, the artist, described himself as 'Miniature Painter to Her Majesty'. Compared with earlier images of the Queen, this portrait is more informal, her hair looser and her dress simpler, perhaps all connected with the recent troubles she had endured, including her husband's illness and the French Revolution.

Charlotte (1744–1818) was the second daughter of Duke Charles Louis Frederick of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1708–52) and his wife, Elizabeth Albertina of Saxe-Hildburghausen (1713–61). She married George III in 1761. 'She looks very sensible, cheerful, and is remarkably genteel', wrote Horace Walpole, the art historian and writer. It was a happy marriage, as their contemporary, Frances Burney, observed: 'Their behaviour to each other speaks the most cordial confidence and happiness … in their different ways, and allowing for the difference of their characters, they left me equally charmed both with their behaviour to each other and to myself'. They had 15 children.

Edward Miles (1752-1828) was born at Yarmouth in Norfolk. He became an errand boy to a surgeon who encouraged him in drawing. In 1771, he went to London and entered the Royal Academy Schools. He was appointed Miniature Painter to the Duchess of York in 1792 and to Queen Charlotte in 1794. He was Court Painter to the Tsar in St Petersburg from 1797 to 1806. He finally settled in Philadelphia, where he became a founder member of the Academy.

Catalogue entry adapted from George III and Queen Charlotte: Patronage, Collecting and Court Taste (2004).