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 Alice (1843-78) was the third child and second daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. She was known for her sweet nature and often took on the role of peacekeeper in the royal household. In a popular edition of Alice's letters to the Queen, published in 1885, Princess Helena, her sister, described her as ‘loving Daughter and Sister, the devoted Wife and Mother, and a perfect, true Woman’. In 1862 she married Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse. Signed and dated: F Winterhalter / 1851. Inscribed on the back with the name of the sitter.