Faija's miniature is based on a photograph taken by John Edwin Mayall of 224 Regent Street, London, on 1 December 1861, showing the Prince Consort seated, writing at a table. Within only a few weeks, the Prince had died of typhoid, leaving Queen Victoria bereft.

Guglielmo Faija, a miniaturist born in Palermo, Sicily, but with a successful practice in London, was one of several miniature painters who were employed by Queen Victoria to produce posthumous miniatures of Prince Albert. Photographs of the Queen taken in the 1860s show her gazing at miniatures such at this one from which she derived some comfort in her widowhood.