A watercolour view of Belfast harbour with, on the left, the royal yacht (the 'Fairy') which is at the quayside with crowds on the landing stage. Signed bottom left: P Phillips; inscribed bottom right, not in a contemporary hand: 11 August '49.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visited Ireland for the first time in August 1849, and commissioned a number of watercolours from Phillips recording their visit. As well as these works, Phillips and his wife Elizabeth, also an artist, collaborated on a moving diorama to commemorate the Queen's visit to Ireland, which was shown at the Chinese Gallery in Hyde Park, London, in 1850. 

At Belfast, like the other locations in Ireland the royal party visited, many temporary decorations were erected to welcome the Queen, such as the triumphal arch seen here that is inscribed 'céad mile fáilte' ('a hundred thousand welcomes'). The Mayor of Belfast at this time was William Gillilan Johnson.

This watercolour was originally mounted in View Album V. 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 with additional items, but a written record of their original contents and arrangement still exists.