Probably painted by Sir William Ross, with the miniature of Victoire, duchesse de Nemours (420921) during the visit to England of the duc and duchesse de Nemours from 14 to 28 July 1840. Queen Victoria was extremely fond of the duc de Nemours and his wife, Victoire, writing of him in 1838: 'I like the Duke of N. so much; he is so gentle and kind, and yet when you know him, has a good deal of dry humour and fun in him' (RA QVJ: 16 July 1838). After their escape from France during the 1848 Revolution they lived at Claremont; from 1866, the duc de Nemours lived at Bushey House, Bushey Park, near Hampton Court Palace, a residence made available for him by Queen Victoria.

Louis, duc de Nemours, second son of Louis-Philippe, King of France, and of Marie-Amélie, daughter of Ferdinand I, King of the Two Sicilies. He was offered the thrones of Greece (1825) and of Belgium (1831), but it would have been politically inexpedient to accept them and he served instead with the French army in Algiers 1836 – 41. He married, in April 1840, Victoire, only daughter of Duke Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg, by whom he had two sons and two daughters. The duc de Nemours spent many years in exile in England with his family, but after the fall of the Second Empire in 1871 he was permitted to return home and spent the remainder of his life living quietly in Paris and at Versailles, where he died on 26 June 1896.

Inscribed on the reverse in ink: Louis / Duc de Nemours / Ross / Pinxit.