The sitter was the Queen’s godson and in August 1878 she had written to his father, the Maharaja, asking him to let her have a portrait of Victor, hoping ‘he still has his beautiful hair’. Unfortunately, as Victor was about to go to a preparatory school, before going on to Eton, all his long hair had been cut off, but a photograph had been taken of him previously. Victor was the elder son of the Maharaja. He was educated at Eton and Cambridge, joined the 1st Royal Dragoons and was Captain 1894-8. He married a daughter of the Earl of Coventry and listed his recreations as shooting and music. Signed and dated: Sydney P. Hall / 1879. Inscribed on the back with the names of the artist and the sitter and the date, 1879, and with the information about the presentation of the portrait.