The fifth son of George III, Cumberland spent much of his youth in military service during the Napoleonic Wars and was present at the Liberation of Hanover in 1813.

He should not be confused with his great uncle William, Duke of Cumberland known for his defeat of the 1745 Jacobite rising who was also depicted in numerous works of art.

When his niece Queen Victoria succeeded to the British crown in 1837, Cumberland inherited the Hanoverian throne as the Guelphic tradition of Salic Law acknowledged him as the nearest male claimant.

[3] Dawe was a fashionable British portrait painter who had spent a number of years in Saint Petersburg painting leading figures of the Russian Empire.

His style has been compared to Sir Thomas Lawrence, the leading British portraitist and President of the Royal Academy.