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.

Lady Frances Cowper (1820-80) was the daughter of the 5th Earl Cowper and niece of Lord Melbourne. In 1841 she married Robert, Lord Jocelyn, and became the sister-in-law of Frances, Countess of Gainsborough, whose portrait is also in the Royal Collection (RCIN 400759). She was one of the train-bearers at Queen Victoria's Coronation and was a Lady of the Bedchamber, 1841-67. Queen Victoria often took her with her on sketching expeditions and described her as 'So very pretty…and such a nice, quiet, unaffected girl'.

Signed and dated: F. Winterhalter 1849.