This is a copy by M. Fry of the portrait painted by Winterhalter for the King of the Belgians in 1844, in the Belgian Royal Collection. The artist is probably Matthieu Fry of Antwerp, whose label is fixed on the stretcher for the painting. 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, however, caused estrangement between him and his English relatives.