A view of Osborne House under construction; on the left is the new wing under scaffolding, and behind the trees, between it and the Royal Pavilion on the right, the old house can be seen still standing. Inscribed and dated: Osborne, March 11th 1847. The sale stamp applied by Leitch's executors at bottom left.

A very similar view but showing the pavilion at a later stage of building was mounted by Victoria and Albert in one of their watercolour albums; see RCIN 919842.

Osborne House on the Isle of Wight was built by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert between 1845 and 1851 as a private family home, designed by Albert himself in the style of an Italian palazzo. Queen Victoria described it as their "sweet seaside home" (Queen Victoria's Journal, 26 August 1850). 

The artist William Leighton Leitch taught the Queen and, later, the royal children and Princess of Wales watercolour painting, and often visited Osborne to do so. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert also acquired a number of Leitch's own landscape paintings in oils and watercolours.