An oil painting after a watercolour painting, also in the Royal Collection (RCIN 920091), of a military review on the Champ de Mars, with lines of troops and soldiers on horseback. On the right, Queen Victoria and the royal party are seated on the balcony of the Ecole Militaire, with fashionably dressed ladies in the viewing stands below.

In August 1855 Queen Victoria and Prince Albert spent ten days in Paris, on the invitation of Napoleon III and his wife Eugenie. George Housman Thomas was in Paris during the royal visit, working for the Illustrated London News.The historic state visit was intended to celebrate the military alliance between Britain and France in the Crimean War, and followed a visit by the imperial couple to Windsor in April that year. On 24 August there was a military review of troops on the Champ de Mars, a large open space in front of the Ecole Militaire used for drills and marching. The troops marched for three quarters of an hour. Queen Victoria wrote an extensive journal entry for the day, remarking 'The coup d'oeil on the Champs de Mars was truly magnificent, from 30 to 40, 000 men, several rows deep being drawn up there' (24 August 1855).  The same evening, she recalled a conversation with the Emperor, 'It was just as if we had one & the same Army, which it in fact is, but it is very pleasant to find this in another Sovereign', the unity of the French and British allies she expresses here being reinforced in Thomas's work, which she went on to commission in 1859, four years after the visit to Paris.