Prince Ernest, later Duke of Cumberland (1771-1851)

Prince Ernest, later Duke of Cumberland, painted in 1782 and in the Royal Collection, depicts one of George III's sons at age eleven as part of Gainsborough's comprehensive royal portrait commission of that year. Ernest would later develop a reputation as the most reactionary and personally unsympathetic of George III's sons, but Gainsborough's portrait presents him simply as a child in the series that documented the large royal family. The 1782 commission was among the largest Gainsborough received — he painted nearly all of the royal children in the same format, creating a systematic visual record of the family at a specific moment — and the consistency of approach across the series allowed direct comparison that revealed both the individuality of each child and the unity of Gainsborough's handling.

Gainsborough renders the royal child with gentle warmth, using the characteristic soft handling and luminous color of his children's portraits.