A watercolour showing two women in Belgian peasant costume. The woman to the left is shown full-length, facing left in profile. She is shown dressed in a pink blouse, dark blue skirt and a tall yellow hat and is carrying a milk jug in one hand. The woman to the right is wearing the same tall yellow hat and a long black cloak.
Inscribed below pasted down sheet: Antwerp Women. VR del: Aug: 12 & 14 1852 (from recollection)

On 10 August 1852, Queen Victoria set sail from Osborne to Belgium on the Royal Yacht, Victoria & Albert. They arrived at Antwerp on 11 August 1852, after sailing up the River Shelde and making anchor overnight. In her journal entry of 12 August 1852, Queen Victoria describes how she "observed many of the women, in their pretty caps & curious hats, carrying about very picturesque milk jugs" while travelling to the Château de Laeken. Queen Victoria took a particular interest in ethnography and national costumes and when travelling she regularly sketched peasants in local dress.