Minna Pfüller of Berlin was an oil portrait painter and miniaturist. This miniature was presumably sent to Queen Victoria from Berlin by the Crown Prince or Crown Princess, as no payments for it are recorded in the Queen's own accounts. It records the Crown Prince's appearance at the time of his return from participating in the Franco-Prussian War in March 1871. At this juncture Leopold II, King of the Belgians, had written to Queen Victoria: 'Voila Fritz qui se couvre de gloire' ['Fritz has returned covered in glory'] (RA VIC/MAIN/Y/159/45, 17 August 1870), although Queen Victoria, who saw him in July 1871, observed that he 'looked grave & aged' (RA QVJ: 8 July 1871). Minna Pfüller's earlier (1858) oil copy of the same sitter after Franz Xaver Winterhalter is in the Royal Collection (402475; Royal Collection). In the present miniature, the Crown Prince wears the uniform of a general of the infantry with the ribbon and star of the Order of the Black Eagle and the badges of the Orders of the Iron Cross and Pour le Mérite.

Signed and dated along the lower right edge in brown paint: M. Pfüller 1871 and inscribed on the reverse in pencil: M. Pfüller. Pinxt / Berlin / 1871