Hermann was Franz Xaver’s younger brother and assistant as well as a painter in his own right, who had studied in Munich and Rome. Queen Victoria had bought two studies of female heads; this one which she gave to Prince Albert on their wedding anniversary, and another (RCIN 408969), which she gave to him at Christmas, 1849. Inscribed on the back as a study of a female head, with the name of the artist and the date, 1849.