Winterhalter was born in the Black Forest where he was encouraged to draw at school. In 1818 he went to Freiburg to study under Karl Ludwig Schüler and then moved to Munich in 1823, where he attended the Academy and studied under Josef Stieler, a fashionable portrait painter. Winterhalter was first brought to the attention of Queen Victoria by the Queen of the Belgians and subsequently painted numerous portraits at the English court from 1842 till his death. Princess Charlotte (1840-1927) was the only daughter of Leopold I, King of the Belgians. She was lively, attractive and intelligent as a child, adored by her father and much loved by her English relatives. In 1857 she married the Archduke Ferdinand-Maximilian of Austria. He was created Emperor of Mexico in 1864 but was executed there in 1867. After her husband’s death Charlotte lived in seclusion in Belgium. Here Princess Charlotte, aged two, holds a bunch of hyacinths and roses. Queen Louise wrote to Queen Victoria: ‘Your great kindness for us and Charlotte and your amiable wish so often expressed to have her picture by Winterhalter lithographed led me to believe, the picture itself might be agreable to you’. Signed and dated: 'F Winterhalter 1842.'