William Pitt the Younger was British Prime Minister from 1783-1801 and 1804-6, during the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. Hoppner's original portrait of Pitt (now at Cowdray Park) was commissioned by Lord Mulgrave and begun in 1804. It had not left Hoppner's studio (as it was being engraved in mezzotint by George Clint) when Pitt died in 1806, and applications for copies were immediately submitted by Pitt's friends and colleagues. These were all made, with the permission of Lord Mulgrave, before the original left Hoppner's studio. The demand was considerable and Hoppner himself is said to have executed 20 versions, while still further replicas were painted by Ramsay Richard Reinagle, Samuel Lane, John Rising and John Jackson (see R. Walker, National Portrait Gallery, Regency Portraits, 1908, I, pp. 392-3)