Queen Victoria visited the tomb of Napoleon in the Church of the Invalides during her State Visit to Paris in Augus 1855. The coffin was then in the small chapel of St Jérome in the church. The Queen recorded in her Journal for 24 August 1855, ‘I stood on the arm of Napoleon IIIrd, before the coffin of his Uncle, our bitterest foe! I, the granddaughter of that King, who hated Napoleon most…& this very nephew, bearing his name now my nearest and dearest ally!’

In the painting Napoleon III looks at Queen Victoria and points to the Emperor’s tomb in front of which rest his hat and orders. On the right of the composition stand the Prince of Wales, the Princess Royal, Princess Mathilde and Prince Albert; while on the left are Auguste Rougevin, Architect of the Invalides, General Comte d'Ornano, Governor of the Invalides and premier maître des cérémonies to the Emperor, Earl Cowley, the British Ambassador in Paris, and Général Sauboul, commandant des Invalides.
 
A number of preparatory drawings for the composition survive in the Royal Library at Windsor. The Queen recorded that she ‘sat by candle light to Mr Ward for a picture of my visit to the Invalides’ in February 1858. The Royal Collection also holds a preliminary oil sketch of the setting (RCIN 403871)

The picture was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1858 (no. 254) as painted by command. Like the other painting commissioned by the Queen from Ward to commemorate the State visits of the Emporer Napoleon III and Queen Victoria to each other's respective countries (RCIN 402020), Ward continued to work on the painting and it was not finished until February 1860.

Signed and dated: 'E.M Ward RA / 1860.' An earlier signature and date, 1858, have been obliterated.