Marie-Amélie,Queen of the French (1782-1866), was the sixth daughter of Ferdinand I, King of the Two Sicilies, and Maria Caroline of Austria. She married Louis-Philippe, Duc d’Orléans, later King of the French, in 1809. His portrait is also in the Royal Collection (RCIN 401527). Through the marriages of their nine children, the Orléans dynasty strengthened its ties with the reigning houses of Europe. She became Queen of the French in 1830. Marie-Amélie spent two periods of exile in England, the first from 1815 to 1817 at Orléans House in Twickenham, and the second at Claremont in Surrey, after the Revolution of 1848 until her death in 1866.

The miniature bears a resemblance to a portrait by Baron Gérard painted in 1819 of which there is a copy in the Royal Collection (RCIN 401528). Marie-Amélie is wearing a pearl belt with a white cameo profile of Louis-Philippe.

The artist, Nicholas Jacques (1780-1844), was a pupil of Jean-Baptiste Isabey. He exhibited at the Paris Salon between 1804 and 1844 and painted portraits of the Bonaparte, Bourbon and Orléans families.

The miniature is signed and dated on the right: Jacques 1818.