A watercolour three-quarter-length portrait of Philippe, Count of Flanders, as a young boy, standing to front with his left hand on a chair.

Philippe was the third son of Leopold I, King of the Belgians, and Louise, Queen of the Belgians, the favourite uncle and aunt of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. This is one of a large series of watercolours by Ross of Victoria and Albert's children and other relations, many of which (including this one) the couple pasted into a series of at least three albums of watercolour portraits. Ross also painted a watercolour of the sitter's older brother Leopold, Duke of Brabant, as part of this commission (see RCIN 913785).

Sir William Ross was a highly successful miniature painter, appointed Miniature Painter to the Queen in December 1837 and knighted in 1842. Queen Victoria particularly admired Ross's ability to catch a likeness, and in addition to miniatures also commissioned many independent watercolours and drawings of her own children and her relations and their offspring. On his death in 1860, the Princess Royal wrote to her mother 'No one will ever paint with such brilliancy and freshness again ... he was such a good kind simple hearted old man ... I shall never forget his funny voice and ways.' (RA Z/9/22/28 January 1860). Later that year Victoria and Albert leant 40 miniatures from their collection by Ross to a retrospective of his work.