It depicts the House of Commons of the Parliament of Great Britain around the time of the country's first involvement in the French Revolutionary Wars.

It shows the Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger at the despatch box engaged in debate.

A large number of other political figures of the era are also depicted including opposition Whig leader Charles James Fox.

It shows St Stephen's Chapel which functioned as the chamber of the Commons until Parliament burned down in 1834 and contains ninety seven portraits.

It was owned by the Austrian Emperor Francis II whose grandson Franz Joseph presented it to Lady Paget the wife of the British ambassador in 1885, who immediately donated it to the National Portrait Gallery.