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 Albertine Victoria of Leiningen, was the daughter of Ernest, Prince of Leiningen, Queen Victoria’s half-nephew, and of Marie, daughter of Leopold, Grand Duke of Baden. Queen Victoria was very fond of the Princess’s mother and was in attendance on the Princess of Leiningen during the birth of Princess Albertine at Osborne House on 23 July 1863. She was diagnosed with ‘Bright’s disease’ in 1875 and suffered chronic ill health from this form of kidney disease, until her death at Waldleiningen in 1901.

This head and shoulders portrait depicts the Princess wearing a white dress trimmed with pink ribbons; she holds a white kit in her left hand, tucked against her chest.