Portrait of Prince George of Denmark & Norway, consort of Queen Anne of Great Britain

Prince George of Denmark's bethrothal to Princess Anne of Great Britain in 1683 was designed to strengthen ties between the two countries. George was awarded titles and honours in his adopted country, and on Anne's accession as queen in 1702, was installed as Lord High Admiral, commander of England's naval forces. Together through a 25-year marriage, George and Anne suffered from the latter's tragic history of miscarriages, still-births and infant deaths. Only one of their children, William Duke of Gloucester, survived beyond the age of two, and William died aged only eleven in 1700. George himself died in 1708, suffering from severe asthma and dropsy, with the queen reported to have flung into an unspeakable grief.

German-born Godfrey Kneller was the leading portrait painter in England from the late 17th to the early 18th centuries, through five reigns from Charles II to George I. Copies of his formal state portraits were produced on an almost industrial scale by a busy studio, for courtiers and official residences at home and abroad. This portrait of Prince George is such a copy form an original portrait by Kneller, and shows the prince in the resplendent robes of the Order of the Garter, the highest rank of knighthood.