This half-length portrait of William Herschel shows him wrapped up warm, ready for observing, against a background of trees at night with a crescent moon and stars (part of the constellation of Gemini) behind him.

William became famous in 1781 when he discovered the first new planet since antiquity, the planet Uranus (though at the time he named it Georgium Sidus after George III) in the constellation Gemini on 13th March 1781.

This portrait was dedicated to the 'Rt Honble. SIR JOSEPH BANKS, Bart. Presdt. of the Royal Society, by his respectful and obedient servant, Frederick Rehburg, Member of the Royal Academy of the Fine Arts Berlin &c &c.' and was published by 'Mr Rehburg, 30 St James Street & Colnaghi & Co. Cockspur Street'.

Although a member of the Royal Academy in Berlin, Rehburg appears from the text to have been living in Windsor in 1814 near to the Royal household whom William would often visit with his telescopes to show them the night sky as part of his duties as their paid astronomer.