This miniature of the Elector of Hanover dates from c. 1670 and is rare examples of the work of Jean Michelin, who is said to have been born in Langres, France, and died in Jersey. He became a member of the Académie Royale in 1668 and worked for the Hanoverian court from 1668 until 1686. The miniature features among a group of eighty-eight representing German and other families first recorded in Queen Caroline’s Closet at Kensington Palace in 1743.

Ernest-Augustus, fourth son of George, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg-Kalenburg married, in1658, Princess Sophia, youngest daughter of Frederick V and Elizabeth of Bohemia. His place in the gallery of Hanoverian portraits represented in Queen Caroline's Closet can be explained by their importance as the immediate forebears of George I. Ernest Augustus himself became the first Elector of Hanover in 1698.

Here the Elector is presented as a Roman commander, a manner in which the Dukes of the House of Brunswick often chose to be presented in large-scale portraits in oils.

Inscribed on the gessoed back: No. 33. Ernest Auguste Duc de Broun: et de Lunebourg Eveque d'Osenbruck

Text adapted from The First Georgians: Art and Monarchy 1714-1760, London, 2014.