Winterhalter was born in the Black Forest where he was encouraged to draw at school. In 1818 he went to Freiburg to study under Karl Ludwig Schüler and then moved to Munich in 1823, where he attended the Academy and studied under Josef Stieler, a fashionable portrait painter. Winterhalter was first brought to the attention of Queen Victoria by the Queen of the Belgians and subsequently painted numerous portraits at the English court from 1842 till his death. Louisa (1832-1911) was the daughter of Charles, Count von Alten of Hanover. In 1852 she married the 2nd Duke of Manchester and in 1892 the 8th Duke of Devonshire. She was Mistress of the Robes 1858-9, about the time this portrait was painted. A contemporary said of her: ‘No one knows how gloriously beautiful a woman can be who did not know the Duchess when she was thirty’. Signed and dated: Fr Winterhalter. / 1859. Inscribed on the back with the names of the artist and sitter and the date, June 1859.