Prince Augustus of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha is shown with head and shoulders to the left in the blue uniform of an honorary Major-General in the Austrian Hussars. He wears the badge of the Golden Fleece and the star of the Family Order of Saxe-Ernest.

The younger son of Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and first cousin of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, in 1843 Augustus married Cl?mentine, youngest daughter of King Louis-Philippe. As a young man Queen Victoria had found him affectionate, good-natured and sensible. At the Revolution of 1848 he came to England with his family. Served later with distinction in the Austrian and Saxon armies, and was given the Austrian Golden Fleece in 1862.

This painting is a copy after a portrait painted by Von Angeli in 1871. It was given to Queen Victoria by the sitter's son, Prince Philip of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and was at Windsor by January 1883.