Princess Augusta was the second daughter of King George III and Queen Charlotte. This picture is after Beechey's portrait of Augusta, painted in 1798 which was sold in these Rooms by the Duke of Cambridge, 11 June 1904, lot 74 (84 gns. to Hodgkins). A miniature in the Royal Collection painted about the same time shows the sitter in the same pose as the present picture but with her left hand holding a spindle (see: R Walker, Miniatures in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, 1992, p. 168, no. 335). This, it is suggested, maybe by Lady Beechey; it was painted for Sir Brent Spencer, whom the princess secretly married