A full-length watercolour depicting the Duchess of Kent in profile turned to the right, in a lightly-sketched landscape setting. Signed at bottom right: F. Winterhalter.

This watercolour is a study for the figure of the Duchess, Queen Victoria's mother, in the oil painting 'The Reception of King Louis-Philippe' by Winterhalter. The prime version of the painting was painted for Louis-Phillipe, King of the French, and is now at Versailles, but see RCIN 401378 for a smaller version painted for Queen Victoria. In October 1844, Louis-Philippe, King of the French, stayed at Windsor as the guest of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, a reciprocal visit following the British royal couple's sojurn at the Château d'Eu (Louis-Philippe's residence in Normandy) the previous year (see, for example, RCIN 919998, for a watercolour relating to this event). This was the first time a reigning French King had visited England since the fourteenth century. 

Winterhalter was the premier portraitist in the mid-nineteenth century at many of the major European courts, working for those of London, Paris, Belgium, Berlin, Vienna, Madrid and St Petersburg, amongst others. He painted over 100 portraits for Queen Victoria and her extended family; the Queen esteemed him especially for his ability to capture a likeness, and the elegance, romance and naturalism of his works. This watercolour was probably commissioned by Victoria to put in the series of albums containing watercolour portraits of family and friends that she and Albert compiled together.