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. Charles Prince of Leiningen was Queen Victoria’s half-brother (her mother's son from her first marriage). Here he wears the ribbon of the Garter. He succeeded his father in 1814, and in 1819 he and his sister Feodora were taken to London after his mother’s second marriage to Edward, Duke of Kent. Signed and dated: 'F Winterhalter / London 1850.' There are faint indications of an earlier signature above. Inscribed on the back with the names of the artist and sitter and the date, May 1850.