William Corden the younger (1819–1900) studied and worked with his father, William the Elder. On a trip to Coburg in 1844, William the Younger painted six watercolour views of the town for Prince Albert. In 1850 he was commissioned by Queen Victoria to visit Lisbon, in order to copy the portrait of Ferdinand, king consort of Portugal, by Ferdinand Krumholz. Instead, he actually painted original full-length portraits of Queen Maria II, and her husband (RCIN 403690, 403691, 406254, 400959). Queen Victoria regularly employed him to copy portraits in her collection, usually as presents, including about fifty by Franz Xaver Winterhalter, many of which are in the Royal Collection. Between 1843 and 1855, he exhibited eight works at the Royal Academy.

Countess Augusta Caroline Sophie Reuss of Ebersdorf (1757–1831) was the second of the seven children of Heinrich XXIV, Count Reuss of Ebersdorf, and Karoline Ernestine of Erbach-Schönberg. In 1777 she married Franz Frederick Anton, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, with whom she had ten children. She was the maternal grandmother of Queen Victoria and the paternal grandmother of Albert, Prince Consort. 

According to an inscription on the reverse, this is a copy of a portrait by Carl Christian Vogel von Vogelstein (1788-1868). The sitter appears within a painted oval, wearing a black dress and veil, a white scarf knotted around her neck; a circular buckle at her waist and an order on her breast.

Corden also copied a portrait by Vogel of the Duchess's daughter, Sophie (RCIN 406490), and Antoinette, and Juliane after Vigée-Lebrun (RCINs 406491, 407174). All four portraits are identically framed and hung in Queen Victoria's Bedroom in Windsor, together with other portraits of her and Prince Albert's ancestors (RCIN 919810).