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.

Leopold was the uncle of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and the son of Franz Friedrich Anton, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. His first marriage in 1816 was to Princess Charlotte, Queen Victoria's cousin, who died in childbirth in 1817. In 1830 he accepted the invitation from the newly independent Belgians to be their King. He was very close to Queen Victoria and had supported the Queen and her mother in the difficult days before her accession. He had 'looked very sharp after the poor little baby' when her father, the Duke of Kent, died in 1820. He also played an important role in negotiating her marriage to Prince Albert and wrote in 1838: 'it is my great anxiety to see Albert a very good and distinguished young man, and no pains will be thought too much on my part if this end can be attained'. To the Queen he wrote 'I love you for yourself, and I love in you the dear child whose welfare I carefully watched.'

King Leopold wears the uniform of a Colonel in the Belgian Cuirassiers, with the badge of the Golden Fleece and the ribbon and star of the order of Leopold. His badges include the Order of Maria Theresa, the Iron Cross, the Legion of Honour, the Order of the Tower and Sword of Portugal and St George of Russia. This may be the portrait which the Queen of the Belgians mentioned in a letter to Queen Victoria in 1841. She wrote: 'I am equally glad you did not approve of that [portrait] of [your] Uncle. I find it also very bad and really think he will never be painted well.'

Signed and dated: Fr Winterhalter 1841 / Paris.