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. Princess Beatrice (1857-1944) was the fifth daughter and youngest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. This portrait was among the ‘lovely sketches’ painted for the Queen by Winterhalter in the summer of 1859. The Princess is wearing an Arab burnous (a cloak with a hood) and carrying a doll in a Russian peasant costume. Signed and dated: Fr Winterhalter 1859. Inscribed on the back with the names of the artist and sitter and the date, June 1859.