The present picture relates to one of the pair which Reynolds painted of King George III and Queen Charlotte for the Royal Academy (see Reynolds, Royal Academy Exhibition Catalogue, edit. by Nicholas Penny, London, 1986, nos. 114 and 115). Sittings are recorded in 1779 and also payment of 200gns. for the pair. That the Monarch should agree to sit to Reynolds was reputed to be a condition of the latter's acceptance of the Presidency of the Academy. After the death of Allan Ramsay in 1784, Reynolds became the official supplier of Portraits to Governors and Ambassadors, and several replicas of the Royal Academy pictures are listed in Reynolds' ledgers.