Henry, Duke of Cumberland with Anne, Duchess of Cumberland, and Lady Elizabeth Luttrell

By 1785, when this group portrait was painted, Henry Duke of Cumberland had been estranged from the royal family for over a decade. His secret marriage in 1771 to Anne Horton — a widow and commoner — had scandalized George III and directly provoked the Royal Marriages Act of 1772, which required royal family members to obtain the sovereign's consent before marrying. Gainsborough occupied a uniquely sensitive position as the artist most frequently employed by both the official royal court and its socially marginalized members. He had painted George III and Queen Charlotte as Principal Painter since 1768, yet here he treats the Duke's controversial household with undiminished dignity. The large format — 163.5 by 124.5 centimeters — signals the painter's refusal to downgrade the commission despite its awkward political circumstances. Lady Elizabeth Luttrell's inclusion as a companion to the Duchess reflects the private social world the pair had built outside official court life. In the same years, Reynolds would have handled such a commission with more carefully encoded social messaging; Gainsborough's restraint reads as a more humane generosity.

The triple portrait demands careful orchestration of three figures, and Gainsborough arranges them with characteristic informality while maintaining the compositional balance required by the aristocratic subject. The fluid brushwork in the women's dresses contrasts with the more solid treatment of the Duke's figure.