This is a copy by Alexander Melville based on Winterhalter's portrait of Queen Louise (RCIN 404520). It was one of the series of family portraits set into the walls of the 1844 Room in Buckingham Palace. Louise was the eldest daughter of King Louis-Philippe, the last King to rule France. She married Leopold I, King of the Belgians and Queen Victoria's uncle, in 1832. Queen Victoria wrote in her Journal that Louise was 'so kind & so good; the more one sees her the more one must love her; she is so thoroughly unselfish, – indeed she never thinks of herself' and 'the dearest friend, after my beloved Albert, I have'.

Signed: A Melville [initials in monogram] / London.