Leopold, Duke of Albany (1853-1884), was the eighth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. He married Princess Helen of Waldeck and Pyrmont in St George’s Chapel, Windsor, in 1882. In the painting the bride and groom stand in front of the altar after their marriage. Queen Victoria stands on the right. She stated in her Journal that she wore for the first time ‘my own wedding lace over black satin, & my own wedding veil, which I had not worn since my wedding day in 1840, surmounted by my small diamond crown’. Sir Frederick Leighton was asked if he could suggest a rising young artist to paint a small picture of the wedding for Queen Victoria. She wanted ‘a simple representation of the group at the altar’. Leighton put forward Linton. Progress on the painting was slow, mainly because the artist had difficulty obtaining access to the dresses and uniforms worn by the participants. It was nearing completion in early 1884 when the Duke of Albany died of a brain haemorrhage and the painting that had begun as a celebration became a memorial. In December of that year the Queen described it as ‘not nearly finished, but promising to be good’, although she found the artist had been ‘very slow & tiresome’. The painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1885. Signed and dated: JD Linton. 1885.