In his eighty-eighth year, Fischer petitioned the Queen regarding a late landscape watercolour which he wished to present to her and made reference to this miniature which he had painted more than 50 years before: 'I was favoured to paint the very first portrait of Her Majesty, when in her Cradle: a large miniature on ivory, which you will find among the Rarities of Windsor Castle' (6 December 1873). A preliminary study in the Royal Library, Windsor Castle (914188: Royal Collection), was drawn by the artist at Kensington, London, in August 1819, and the resulting miniature must have been painted for the birthday of the Princess's father, the Duke of Kent, on 2 November 1819. Some alterations to the position of the arms and the direction of the infant's gaze have been made in the final miniature. Another drawing of Queen Victoria as a baby by Fischer dated 1819 is in Schloss Ehrenburg, Coburg. A drawing showing the infant Princess Victoria seated, wearing a bonnet, is inscribed 'Sketch for a Miniature portrait of Princess Victoria January 1820. Finished on ivory for the Duchess of Kent' (BM, London, no. 1903-4-8-2; exh. BM 1974, no. 349).