This is a copy by William Corden of Winterhalter’s portrait of Prince Alfred (RCIN 401024) painted in 1852. Prince Alfred (1844–1900) was the second son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, and grandson of the Duchess of Kent. He was an extrovert with an enquiring mind and enjoyed learning. He taught himself the violin when he was a child and later his niece, Princess Alice of Albany, remembered ‘the erratic movements of his bow over the strings, which he fingered with exuberant originality but with little regard for the score’. He later helped establish the Royal College of Music. He enjoyed a career in the navy and was made Admiral of the Fleet in 1893.