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.

Gaston was the son of the Duc de Nemours and Victoire, Duchesse de Nemours. Queen Victoria described him as a 'very peculiar dear child, and so like Nemours in character with Vic's handsome features'. He attained high rank in the Brazilian army and in 1864 married the Princess Imperial of Brazil, daughter of Dom Pedro II and his successor as Head of the Imperial House of Brazil.

This is a probably autograph version of a portrait of 1845, now at Versailles. Inscribed on the back as a copy (1846) after Winterhalter.