James Anderson was a prolific portrait painter of the mid- to late-19th century. This painting was most likely produced from a photograph of William Charles Wentworth. It is dated 1872 but we know that Wentworth died in England in 1872 and Anderson was in Australia.

Wentworth was an explorer, author, barrister, landowner, and statesman. He was also the son of a convict, Catherine Crowley, who was convicted at the Staffordshire Assizes in July 1788 of feloniously stealing ‘wearing apparell’, and sentenced to transportation for seven years.