A watercolour and bodycolour drawing of an Italian girl, seated to the right, holding a baby. On brown paper, which has been laid down on cream card watermarked "J WHATMAN". This is one of six paintings presented by Queen Victoria to Prince Albert in 1844 to be set into panels in the west door of his dressing room at Windsor Castle. One of this series is now untraced. A couple of years previously Prince Albert had acquired a different set of six works by Buckner for the north door in the same room (see RCINs 922502-7). Both series of paintings were still in position in 1928 and can be seen in photographs of the room's interior taken at that date, but were subsequently removed and placed in the Royal Library. Buckner, who was a painter of portraits and Italian peasants, was patronised extensively by the Royal family, particularly in the 1840s. Another set of paintings was purchased by Queen Victoria, probably in 1845, for the east door panels in Prince Albert's dressing room, though only three of these can now be identified (RCINs 922499, 922500 and 922501).