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. This portrait was painted when Princess Louise was in London with her family for the opening of the Great Exhibition in 1851. She was the only daughter of the future German Emperor and sister of Crown Prince Frederick William. Princess Victoria, Queen Victoria’s eldest daughter, formed ‘an amazing friendship’ with Louise and her brother and in 1858 she and the Prince were married. Signed and dated: F Winterhalter / 1851. On the back of the original canvas was an inscription giving the names of the artist and sitter, the sitter’s age (twelve) and the date, May 1851.