Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland and King of Hanover

George Dawe's portrait of Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland and King of Hanover of 1828 documents one of the most controversial members of the British royal family in the nineteenth century. Ernest Augustus, fifth son of George III, was deeply unpopular in Britain due to rumors of violent misconduct and his extreme reactionary politics, but he became King of Hanover in 1837 when Queen Victoria's accession ended the personal union between Britain and Hanover — Hanoverian succession law excluding women. Dawe, who had built his reputation with his extraordinary series of portraits of Russian generals for the Hermitage's Military Gallery, here produces a formal royal portrait of a man more feared than loved. The National Portrait Gallery's picture is a document of the Hanoverian branch of the British royal family.

Dawe employs the full apparatus of royal portraiture: military uniform with decorations, a composed three-quarter pose, and an architectural or draped background that conveys rank. The handling is smooth and accomplished — Dawe was a technically proficient portraitist who learned much from his work in Russia alongside Romantic painters. The face is given individual rather than flattering modeling.