Princess Alexandra (1844–1925) or Alix, as she was known in the family, was Queen Victoria's daughter-in-law. She married the Queen's eldest son Albert Edward, Prince of Wales and the future Edward VII, in 1863. This portrait was painted before she came over to England. Franz Xaver Winterhalter, the Queen's favourite portrait painter, was ill at the time so Queen Victoria decided to 'get Lauchert (the next best) to go to Copenhagen to paint her'.

The Prince's elder sister Victoria, the Crown Princess of Prussia, described Alexandra as having 'a lovely figure but very thin, a complexion as beautiful as possible. Very fine white regular teeth and very fine large eyes – with extremely prettily marked eyebrows. A very fine well-shaped nose, very narrow but a little long – her whole face is very narrow, her forehead too but well shaped and not at all flat. Her voice, her walk, carriage and manner are perfect, she is one of the most ladylike and aristocratic looking people I ever saw' and 'outrageously beautiful'. Queen Victoria thought her a 'dear, lovely being'.

Lauchert painted two other portraits of Princess Alexandra at this time (RCIN 400874 and an oval version RCIN 402337). This portrait may have been painted before the oval version as it is more freely painted and there are slight alterations to the fabric of her gown which are absent in the other painting.