William Henry Pyne was an artist, writer and publisher who produced The history of the royal residences of Windsor Castle, St. James's Palace, Carlton House, Kensington Palace, Hampton Court, Buckingham House, and Frogmore in three volumes between 1816 and 1819. To accompany the text of this ambitious and ruinously expensive project, Pyne commissioned well-known watercolour artists to paint one hundred scenes of the interior and exterior views of the royal residences. These illustrations were then reproduced as hand-finished aquatint plates, a type of coloured print that was very popular in the early nineteenth century. Pyne's books are today considered an invaluable source of information about how the royal palaces appeared in 1816, particularly for their detailed recording of interior design and furnishing.

This aquatint is taken from Pyne's section on Kensington Palace, which had been extensively renovated in the 1720s under the patronage of King George I. The King controversially appointed William Kent, at that time still a relatively unknown artist, to decorate the interior rooms of the palace. The reason for his appointment over the court artist Sir James Thornhill remains slightly obscure, though it was likely a combination of Kent's low prices, his Palladian aesthetics, and Thornhill's unpopularity with the Surveyor General Sir Thomas Hewett. While Kent's painting was not considered an unmitigated success, his work for the king bolstered his career and he subsequently became one of the most important designers of the eighteenth century.

The King's Staircase was enlarged and decorated by William Kent between 1725 and 1727. The main feature was a trompe l'oeilballastrade which depicted members of George I's court.