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. On 3 May 1851 Queen Victoria ‘spent, as yesterday, some time watching Winterhalter painting our little Louise – a charming picture’. Princess Louise (1848–1939) was the sixth of Queen Victoria’s nine children. Beautiful and artistic, as an adult she supported the women’s movement and helped launch the Girls Public Day School Company. Signed and dated: F Winterhalter / 1851. Inscribed on the back with the names of the artist and sitter and the date, 1851.