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.

Prince Christian is dressed in the uniform of a Major-General, to which rank he had been appointed on 3 July 1866. He wears the ribbon and star of the Garter. The Prince had married Princess Helena, Queen Victoria's daughter, on 5 July 1866 and they passed through Paris after their wedding on the way to Switzerland.

Signed and dated: Fr Winterhalter. / 1866.