A watercolour view of Balmoral Castle, flying the Royal Standard, which shows the newly-built ballroom on the left and, beyond that, a marquee. In the foreground are large crowds.

On 22 September 1859 Queen Victoria and Prince Albert hosted a fête at Balmoral Castle, their home in the Highlands. Games were held, for which the Queen gave out prizes, followed by dancing. Victoria recorded in her journal entry for that day that they were 'much pleased at all having gone off so well'.

Lungren was a Swedish artist who worked for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert from 1854 onwards, painting many watercolours of theatrical scenes for them, acting as an artist in residence at Balmoral in the autumn of 1859 and executing a number of commissions depicting family events, including the wedding of the Princess Royal (RCIN 919928) and the christening of Princess Beatrice (RCIN 919914). While at Balmoral he saw the Queen frequently, and found her 'always most Charmingly gracious'. The Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, holds a large group of Lundgren's drawings which includes four made during this event.

This watercolour was originally mounted in View Album VIII. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert compiled nine View Albums during their marriage. These albums contained watercolours and drawings documenting their life together and were arranged in chronological order. The albums were dismantled in the early twentieth century and rebound in new volumes both in a different arrangement and with additional items, but a written record of their original contents and arrangement still exists.