Joseph Hartmann (1812-85) was born at Ried in Austria. The city of Vienna played host to his early career but he later moved to Darmstadt where he received several commissions from the Grand Duke and Duchess of Hesse along with several eminent members of the ducal court. It is likely to have been through the recommendation of the Grand Duchess Alice, Queen Victoria’s second eldest daughter, that Hartmann found patronage at the Court of St James’s.

Princess Elizabeth of Hesse (1864-1918) was the second daughter of Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse, and Princess Alice, third child of Queen Victoria. In 1884 she married Grand Duke Serge of Russia, son of Tsar Alexander II. After her husband's assassination in 1905, she founded a convent and dedicated her life to helping the poor of Moscow as a nun. She was arrested by the Bolsheviks in 1918 and later that year she was thrown alive down a mineshaft with several other prisoners. After her death her remains were recovered and she was buried in the Orhodox Church of St Mary Magdelene in Jerusalem. She was canonised by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1992.

The Princess appears here head and shoulders, wearing a broderie anglaise dress with blue ribbons intertwined, a blue ribbon in her hair, and small blue earrings; against a light blue-green background.