This is a slightly reduced (head and shoulders only) version after William Ross's miniature of the newly married duchesse de Nemours painted in July 1840 (420921). Queen Victoria was extremely fond of Victoire Nemours, and their striking physical similarity and close ties of affection were commemorated in Franz Xaver Winterhalter's double portrait known as 'The Cousins' showing them seated, side by side, in profile, painted for Prince Albert in 1852 (404875). They had been in close contact since the Nemours, with the rest of the French Royal Family, sought exile in England following the 1848 Revolution, when Queen Victoria wrote: 'we are just like sisters, and feel as we did in 1839, when you know how very fond we were of each other. She is a dear, noble, and still beautiful child'.

Princess Victoire of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, only daughter of Ferdinand, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and Maria Antonia, daughter of Francis Joseph, Prince of Kohary, married, in April 1840, Louis, duc de Nemours, second son of Louis-Philippe, King of the French, and Queen Marie-Amélie; they had two sons and two daughters. During her exile from France with the Orléans family, she lived in semi-retirement from society at Claremont, near Esher.

Signed and inscribed on the counter-enamel in black paint: H.R.H. / the / Duchesse de Nemours / Painted by W. Essex / Enamel painter to / Her Majesty / after a mine by / W.C. Ross Esqr A.R.A.