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.

This is the primary version of this type of miniature, painted before Princess Feodora's marriage to Prince Ernest of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. Princess Victoria wrote some six years later that: 'She was married on the 18th February 1828 and went away to Germany a week after and she never came here again since'.

Feodora, Princess of Leiningen, was the only daughter of Emich Carl, 2nd Prince of Leiningen, and Victoria, Princess of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, later Duchess of Kent, and half-sister of Queen Victoria. She married, in 1828, Ernest, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg,with whom she had three sons and three daughters. She maintained a close relationship with Queen Victoria through her correspondence, and after her death her letters were privately printed for Queen Victoria.

Signed and dated in gold along the right edge: H Collen. 1828. (the H and C in monogram) and signed, dated and inscribed on the reverse in ink: Painted by H. Collen. 1828. / 37 Somerset Street / Portman Square / London.