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.

Collen's miniature is copied after the half-length portrait (407158) by Karl Jacob Theodor Leybold (1786 – 1844), signed and dated 1829. Leybold's portrait was first recorded at Frogmore House in 1866, together with a pendant portrait of Ernest, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg.

Signed and dated on the reverse in ink: 1832 / Painted HCollen (the H and C in monogram) / 37 Somerset St. / London.