This portrait was painted for Sir Robert Peel and used to hang in his residence at Drayton Manor. The painting was later bought at the Sir Robert Peel’s heirloom sale. John Fisher Wordsworth then bought the portrait in 1919 from the Georgian Gallery. Henry William Pickersgill was an artist who specialised in portraits. He was a Royal Academician for almost fifty years, and painted many notable figures of his time, including Wordsworth, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Lord Nelson. The painting was bequeathed to the Wordsworth Trust by John Fisher Wordsworth in 1920.