Rudolph Wimmer studied in Munich and Antwerp and later exhibited in Munich in 1879 and Berlin in 1886. The Wright Museum in Wisconsin has another portrait of the sitter by Wimmer.

This whole-length, life-size portrait depicts Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859-1941) in the cocked hat, epaulets and insignia of an Admiral in the British Royal Navy with the Garter riband and star, his installation into the Order having taken place on his eighteenth birthday. At his throat, the Kaiser wears the badge of the German Johanniter Order. The Emperor can be seen standing on the terrace at Osborne House with ships in the Solent beyond firing salutes. The eldest grandchild of Queen Victoria, he holds a telescope in his lowered right hand and the hilt of a sword in his gloved left hand. A statue of an eagle can be seen to the Emperor’s left.

This portrait – which was possibly painted from a photograph – relates to an unofficial state visit the Kaiser made to Osborne in 1889, although the painting was executed some years later. The Emperor was escorted to Queen Victoria’s summer residence by a squadron of Imperial German Naval ships and arrived in Cowes in his steam yacht, Hohenzollern, on Friday 2nd August. Since Queen Victoria had made her grandson an Admiral of the British Fleet earlier that year, it appears that the Emperor arrived at Osborne in the uniform associated with that post. In a letter to Sir Edward Mallet, the Kaiser observed: ‘Fancy wearing the same uniform as St. Vincent and Nelson; it is enough to make one quite giddy’ (14 June 1889).