This is a copy by C. Fortescue Bate of Winterhalter’s portrait of Princess Alice (RCIN 401023). 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. This painting was given to her grandmother, the Duchess of Kent. Inscribed on the back as a copy by Bate after Winterhalter: the sitter’s age given as seven.