Thorburn began this miniature in February 1844. Queen Victoria reported: 'He has also done a head of Alice, which is quite beautiful' (RA QVJ: 1 March 1844). A few days later she commented: 'Alice gave her last sitting to Mr. Thorburn for the really beautiful miniature; she is seated on the ground, without any clothes on, & the whole thing is so natural, besides the likeness being so good' (RA QVJ: 6 March 1844). Soon after her birth, Queen Victoria had thought Princess Alice 'a pretty & large Baby & we think will be la beauté of the family' (RA VIC/Y 91/9), but by the following year, when this miniature was painted, the Queen was forced to admit that she 'looks too funny as she is so very fat' (RA VIC/Y 91/54). In terms of its composition, with Princess Alice depicted seated on a white cloth in front of an extensive mountainous Highland background, the miniature displays an affinity with the oil medium that Thorburn was to adopt exclusively in later decades. A commission to paint Princess Alice again some eight years later was postponed indefinitely as Thorburn's family had scarlet fever and he was not permitted to come into contact with the Royal Family at that period.