Muller was born in Paris and studied with Baron Gros (1771-1835); he became the Director of the Gobelins Manufacture. This portrait is one of a set of eight studies (RCIN 404885-92 and 403665) made in preparation for Muller's painting of the reception of Queen Victoria by Napoleon III at St Cloud on 18 August 1855. The finished painting was destroyed during the Franco-Prussian War. Queen Victoria's son-in-law, the Crown Prince of Prussia, recorded in his war diaries how he tried to save 'the great picture representing the arrival of my mother-in-law at the Palace in 1855' but it proved impossible. He asked the rescuers to try to 'at least to cut out for me the figure of my wife, but even this had to be given up'. The artist's sketch for the original painting is also in the Royal Collection (RCIN 404893).

Jane (1821-90) was the daughter of James Hope-Vere of Craigie and a cousin of Lady Douro, whose portrait is also in the Royal Collection (RCIN 404907). She was a Lady of the Bedchamber 1851-89 and a close friend of the Empress Eugénie. Lady St Helier, a contemporary, described her as 'A handsome woman of imperious character and temper' but Queen Victoria thought her 'a very sweet, amiable, gentle person – pretty & lady like'.

Inscribed on the back by the artist: 'La Marquise d'Ely dame d'honneur de S.M. la Reine / 23 25 26 juin / Pied 5 Pouces 3 / 63 Eaton Place / -Londres.'