A three-quarter-length oval portrait of Queen Victoria, turning to the right, holding a fan and flowers and wearing a wreath of poppies.

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 particular portrait of the Queen was made as a surprise for her husband Prince Albert; she recorded in her journal that she sat to Winterhalter on 12 and 13 October 1846 while the Prince was out shooting, and then again on 30 January 1847 for "a sketch he beagn of me in watercolours, a good while ago". The watercolour may have been an anniversary present, as the royal couple's wedding anniversary was on 10 February. This watercolour was reproced as a lithograph by Thomas Fairland in 1847 (see RCIN 605695 for an impression of it).