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. Victoria was Queen Victoria’s eldest daughter and Princess Royal. She married Prince Frederick William of Prussia and became Princess of Prussia and Empress of Germany. When she was a child her nickname was ‘Pussy’. When this portrait was being painted Queen Victoria noted in her Journal: ‘After luncheon went to see Pussy sitting to Winterhalter, who has made a delightful picture of her’. Signed and dated: F Winterhalter 1842. Inscribed on the back with the names of the artist and sitter and the date, 1842.