This miniature is based on an oil portrait of George I by Sir Godfrey Kneller which the king gave to his half-sister, Sophia Charlotte von Kielmansegg, at the time of his coronation. The portrait was probably painted during the weeks between his arrival in England on 18 September 1714 and his coronation on 20 October. The miniature is a particularly fine example of Bernard Lens's work and may have led to the artist's appointment in 1723 as Painter in Enamel to George I. The king is wearing the ribbon of the Garter.

George, Elector of Hanover, was proclaimed king of Great Britain and Ireland in 1714 under the Act of Settlement which sought to secure a Protestant succession. He was challenged by the Jacobites, supporters of the Roman Catholic son of James II, James Stuart, who landed in Scotland in 1715, but the rebellion was suppressed by the end of the year. In parliament, some Tories were sympathetic to the Jacobites so George turned to the Whig party to form a government and they dominated politics. Opposition to the king gathered round his eldest son, George, Prince of Wales, and led to differences and intense dislike between father and son. In 1719 and 1720, and during most of the King's absences in Hanover, power was delegated to a Regency Council and not to the Prince of Wales. George married in 1682 Sophia Dorothea of Brunswick-Celle; he subsequently divorced her for infidelity and in 1694 imprisoned her in the castle of Ahlden until her death in 1726. George I died on 11 June 1727 during a visit to Hanover.

Bernard Lens (1682-1740) was born in London, into a family of artists, and is usually known as Bernard Lens III. He taught miniature painting, and Princess Mary, the daughter of George II and Queen Caroline,was one of his pupils. His early work was on vellum, but he was one of the first artists in England to follow the example of the Italian artist Rosalba Carriera, using ivory instead from 1708. His miniatures often appear in 'Bernard Lens frames', black rectangles made of pearwood.

Signed with initials lower left in gold paint: BL (monogram) and inscribed on the brown paper frame backing in ink: George I / by Bernard Lens. 2 Dec 1720 / after the picture by/Sir Godfrey Kneller / (the picture is in Windsor Castle) / bought by Queen Mary & presented to the Royal Library Sept. 1936.