William Essex trained as an enamel painter in the workshop of Charles Muss (1779 – 1824), Enamel Painter to William IV. Essex first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1818 and throughout the 1820s and early 1830s built up a successful practice, working chiefly in enamel. William Essex must have had his first introduction to court circles through Charles Muss. He may initially have worked in collaboration with his teacher, but by 1827 was earning his own commissions from George IV. In 1834 Essex painted an enamel miniature of Charlotte, Duchess of Northumberland, governess to Queen Victoria, after Sir Thomas Lawrence; although he was already well established in royal circles, his patronage by the Duchess of Northumberland may have been an additional factor that contributed to his appointment as Enamel Painter to Queen Victoria in 1837 and Enamel Painter to Prince Albert in 1841. Queen Victoria employed Essex to make numerous enamel copies of portraits of her after Franz Xaver Winterhalter, which were set into bracelets and distributed as gifts. He also made numerous copies of portraits of her relatives and contemporaries. Most of these were commissioned within the same year as the original on which they were based, and were often given by Queen Victoria to Prince Albert. He also made historical copies of early miniatures and portraits at Windsor. Despite Essex's ostensible success, however, he fell into poverty in his later years and was forced to request that the Queen supplement his artist's annuity of £40 with a pension.

Essex's copy is taken from Franz Xaver Winterhalter's full-length portrait of the Grand Duchess painted in 1848 as a birthday present for her sister, the Duchess of Kent, from Queen Victoria (404524). The original portrait shows her standing in a landscape probably intended to represent Boissière near Geneva, where she lived a retired life following her divorce in 1820 from the Grand Duke Constantine of Russia.

Princess Juliane of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, third daughter of Francis Antony, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and Augusta, daughter of Henry XXIV, Count of Reuss-Ebersdorff, married, in 1796, the Grand Duke Constantine of Russia, second son of Emperor Paul I of Russia. She took the name Anna Feodorovna on her marriage, which was dissolved in 1820, and died childless in 1860.

Signed, dated and inscribed on the counter-enamel in black paint: Her S.H. the Grand / Duchess Anne of / Russia. Born Princess of Saxe / Coburg Saalfeld. / Painted by W. Essex / Enamel painter to Her Majesty / & H.R.H. Prince Albert / after Winterhalter / 1850