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 Sch?ler 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.

Leopold succeeded his father as King of the Belgians in 1865. His father described him in 1864 as 'more selfish and fantastical than ever'. He had an unhappy marriage and his only son died in 1869. He travelled extensively and provided funds for the acquisition and colonisation of the Belgian Congo, which made him immensely rich by the end of his life. His dissolute private life caused estrangement between him and his English relatives.

Queen Louise at first described Winterhalter's portrait of Leopold as 'speaking' and 'wonderfully like', but when it was finished had reservations: 'there is something allong? [elongated] and pinc? [tight-lipped] in Leopold's picture which was not there at first, and which I don't approve.'

Inscribed on the back with the names of the artist and sitter (aged nine) and the date, 1844.