This design is inscribed as being for a portrait of the Duke of Cumberland, and was intended to embellish a pair of full length portraits presented as a gift to the Countess from the Duke and Duchess themselves. It is likely that the portraits were presented out of gratitude for Lady Home’s support for the couple’s controversial marriage.

The portraits by Gainsborough were completed in 1777 and were exhibited at the Royal Academy that same year. They reassert the Cumberlands’ status, with both shown wearing robes of state and with coronets prominently featured. Adam’s design echoes this ducal display, with the inclusion of pelmets, coronets, trophies and royal supporters.

A clause within Lady Home’s Will expressed a wish that upon her death the portraits be bequeathed to the ‘Lord Mayor, Aldermen and Commonality of the City of London’, to be displayed in ‘the Mansion House, London’. There was, however, a codicil allowing for return of the paintings to the Cumberlands, if they so wished. The Duke and Duchess, it seems, exercised this right and when the Duchess died in 1809 she left the portraits to the Duke of Clarence, her nephew by marriage and the future William IV. The paintings were first recorded as part of the Royal collection in the 1840s, where they were probably incorporated after the death of William IV. Within the collection they were previously known to have plain moulded frames and were fitted with their current ones in the 20th century.

In her Will the Countess of Home records the portraits as hanging in her ‘Capital Room’. The second drawing room is accepted as the most fitting location for the portraits, and it is likely that they were displayed to either side of the chimneypiece.