Christian Karl August Noack (1822-1905) executed more than one thousand portraits throughout his career, with sitters ranging from a loyal page boy (RCIN 403652) to royal patrons. Having studied at the Dusseldorf and Antwerp Academies, Noack travelled throughout France, Italy and the Netherlands producing a plethora of portraits in addition to landscapes, biblical and historical subjects. Noack eventually returned to Darmstadt where he became court painter to the Duchy of Hesse and professor at the Polytechnic Institute.

Prince Louis of Hesse, son of Charles, Prince of Hesse, and Elisabeth, third daughter of Prince William of Prussia, succeeded his uncle, Louis III, as Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse, in 1877. He married, in 1862, Princess Alice, the second daughter of Queen Victoria, by whom he had two sons and five daughters.

In this family portrait, Louis, the Grand Duke of Hesse is seated, surrounded by his family. He wears the uniform of an officer in the Hessian contingent of the Prussian army, decorated with the star of the Garter and the Iron Cross. His wife Alice (the Grand Duchess, Queen Victoria’s second daughter) is seated beside him with Prince Frederick on her lap. Princess Victoria stands to the left and Prince Ernest leans against his mother, holding his hat, and looking out at the viewer.