Queen Victoria is sitting in the Green Drawing Room at Windsor Castle, surrounded by members of her family. On the mantelpiece is a bronze bust of Prince Albert. Queen Victoria commissioned the painting to commemorate the gathering of her family for the Golden Jubilee, celebrating 50 years of her reign. She had admired the picture Tuxen had painted of the family of the King and Queen of Denmark (RCIN 402341) and wanted a similar record of her own family. The Queen noted that the composition was ‘not to be stiff & according to Etiquette, but prettily grouped’. Tuxen encountered certain difficulties when planning the group – the Princess of Wales, who did not wish to speak German, refused to be placed next to the Crown Prince, and the Duke of Connaught said he would rather be left out altogether than put near the Battenburgs. Some of the sitters gave the artist photographs to work from, but the shapes of some of the female clients had been airbrushed – the Queen said that one such misleading print should be burnt. The finished painting was considered a great success and Queen Victoria noted: ‘The picture is beautiful, the Drawing room admirably painted & the likenesses very good …the grouping & colouring, all, charming’. Signed and dated: L Tuxen 1887.