A watercolour showing the Riding School at the Royal Mews, Windsor Castle, on the occasion of the distribution of the bounty, with many figures around the long tables set up in the space. Signed and dated bottom right: Josh. Nash. 1846.

The distribution of the bounty was an annual event which took place on New Year's Day, when food, fuel and clothing was distributed to the poor of Windsor and Eton on behalf of the Queen. Victoria wrote in her journal for this day that she, Prince Albert, their three eldest children (the Princess Royal, Prince of Wales and Princess Alice) and Victoria's mother the Duchess of Kent went to the Riding School after breakfast "where we witnessed, from the window of the room above, the distribution of garments &c to the poor people of the Town." This watercolour appears to have been made from the perspective of the royal watchers, looking out at the scene in the Riding School. According to the Illustrated London News (published 3 January 1846), there was a "table, between fifty and sixty feet in length, upon which were displayed the numerous joints of beef, weighing about 15 cwt., ornamented with holly and evergreens. The blankets for distribution were ranged upon long tables on the north and south sides of the building, and either end were tables upon which were displayed half a ton of plum-pudding, and a ton weight of bread in two or four pound loaves." The foliage decoration referenced in the newspaper account doesn't appear in Nash's watercolour.

Nash appears to have first worked for Victoria and Albert in 1844, when he was commissioned to record events from the visits of, first, the Emperor of Russia and then Louis-Philippe, King of the French. He painted a watercolour of the Queen's Christmas tree in 1845, presumably as part of the same commission as this one (see RCIN 919807).

This watercolour was originally mounted by Victoria and Albert in View Album III. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert compiled nine View Albums during their marriage. These albums contained watercolours and drawings documenting their life together and were arranged in chronological order. The albums were dismantled in the early twentieth century and rebound in new volumes both in a different arrangement and with additional items, but a written record of their original contents and arrangement still exists.