It is not clear from Queen Victoria's accounts whether this miniature was commissioned from Thorburn by Queen Victoria or Prince Albert. However when it was first listed in an inventory it was said there to have been given to Queen Victoria by Prince Albert for her birthday in 1852: 'Prince Albert 1/2 length smaller than the preceding one in the Highland dress. Painted by Rt. Thorburn 1852. Given to the Queen by Prince Albert May 24th'. The Queen was fond of the Prince's appearance in Highland dress and he is shown here wearing a Royal Stewart tartan kilt and the sash of the Order of the Thistle. Queen Victoria's lady-in-waiting, Eleanor Stanley, recorded the Prince's appearance at Balmoral 'in full Highland dress of Royal Stuart [sic] tartan every night, but I don't think it becomes him, he is rather too fat and substantial for it' (E. Stanley, Twenty Years at Court from the Correspondence of The Hon. Eleanor Stanley, 1916, p. 266).