Born in Middlesex, London, in 1798, Henry Collen received a formal artistic training at the Royal Academy Schools from September 1820, although he had been a pupil of the painter George Hayter as early as 1819. It was through Hayter that Collen was first introduced in court circles. By 1835 Collen had been made Miniature Painter to the Duchess of Kent and the Princess Victoria, and his appointment as 'Miniature Painter to Her Majesty' on 16 August 1837 followed Queen Victoria's accession. He developed a distinguished clientele, but at the apogee of his career as a miniature painter he went into business with W.H. Fox Talbot, the inventor of the calotype process, becoming the first professional calotypist in London. The venture may not have been successful, for he exhibited miniatures at the RA throughout this period and continued to do so until 1872. He died aged eighty-one at 15 Portland Place, Brighton, on 8 May 1879.

The location of Alfred Chalon's miniature of Princess Charlotte, cited by Collen as the source for this miniature, is not recorded. It is now known from the related full-length portrait by George Dawe painted in October 1817 (Belgian Royal Collection, on loan to the Belgian Embassy in London). An oil copy after Dawe is in the Royal Collection (402491) At the time of her marriage, the Princess of Wales gave her husband a miniature based on the same image in a case inscribed with the date 16 Dec 1816 (Leopold's birthday). This was later returned to Queen Victoria after the death of Leopold I in 1865 by his son the Count of Flanders (52287). It may be another work by Henry Collen.

A note preserved with the miniature is signed, dated and inscribed in ink by the artist: 1861. / Copied from a Miniature, / by AE Chalon R.A., / by Henry Collen, St Albans / Miniature Painter to / Her Majesty and / Her late RH / The Duchess of Kent.