This is a copy by August Canzi based on Winterhalter's portrait of Leopold I (RCIN 404525).

Leopold was the uncle of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and the son of Franz Friedrich Anton, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. His first marriage in 1816 was to Princess Charlotte, Queen Victoria's cousin, who died in childbirth in 1817. In 1830 he accepted the invitation from the newly independent Belgians to be their King. He was very close to Queen Victoria and had supported the Queen and her mother in the difficult days before her accession. He had 'looked very sharp after the poor little baby' when Victoria's father, the Duke of Kent, died in 1820. He also played an important role in negotiating her marriage to Prince Albert and wrote in 1838: 'it is my great anxiety to see Albert a very good and distinguished young man, and no pains will be thought too much on my part if this end can be attained'. To the Queen he wrote 'I love you for yourself, and I love in you the dear child whose welfare I carefully watched.'

On the stretcher for the canvas is inscribed: M.r Canzi.