This miniature was the first commission William Ross received to paint a member of the Royal Family and may be the miniature of 'H.R.H. the Duke of Cambridge' mentioned in an undated list of miniatures compiled by Ross (Ross papers, Edinburgh City Library: BRS/qwN 45/Box). The composition shows the sitter standing with crossed arms wearing a dark-blue frock coat with the ribbon of the Order of the Garter partially concealed beneath his waistcoat. It appears to be indebted to an oil portrait by Sir William Beechey of the Duke (current location unknown; formerly Aston Hall Collection, Birmingham: inv. no. 1885P3198). Ross's adaptation of it for the Duchess of Gloucester's miniature was sufficiently successful to ensure him the patronage of the Duchess of Kent and her daughter, Queen Victoria, two years later. Another version was acquired by Queen Victoria in 1853 (420238); a third, at Christie's, London, 16 December 1975 (lot 53), from the collection of Adolphus, 1st Marquess of Cambridge, brother of Queen Mary and grandson of Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, was probably painted for the sitter himself.

The backing card is larger than the ivory, leaving a band around the edge which the artist has used for test strokes. This, and the vigorous, loose technique, show this to be the primary version of the image of the two now in the Royal Collection. The miniature is recorded in a photograph of the Sitting Room of Victoria Mary, Princess of Wales, later Queen Mary, at Marlborough House. The miniature is mounted on a stand with several others showing members of the Cambridge family and sits on the Princess of Wales's desk (RA, QMA 1904 – 5, p. 45). A note in Queen Mary's hand attached to the reverse is inscribed: 'Given by Queen Mary to her daughter Princess Mary Viscountess Lascelles 1923' but there is no further evidence to suggest that the miniature left, and was later returned to, the Royal Collection.

Signed and dated on the reverse in ink: 'Painted by W.  C. Ross 1835'