A watercolour depicting Prince Albert standing, reading, with a figure seated at a desk in the background. The verso is inscribed, probably by the artist: Prince Consort in the West Drawing room / Holyrood House, / drawn after his death by G.M.Greig / 10 South Charlotte St. / Edinburgh. 

The Palace of Holyroodhouse was used as a royal residence by Queen Victoria and her family from 1850 onwards, a convenient stopping point on the journey north from London or Windsor to Balmoral Castle in the Highlands. Victoria and her husband first saw the Palace during a carriage ride through Edinburgh on their first visit to Scotland in September 1842, but did not visit it properly until 1850, when they spent two nights in 'the interesting & antient Palace of my ancestors' (Queen Victoria's journal, 29th August 1850) during which they climbed to the top of Arthur's Seat, an ancient volcano. While in Edinburgh Prince Albert also laid the foundation stone for the National Gallery of Scotland.

The palace was extensively redecorated before the first royal visit in 1850. The interior decoration was carried out by the Edinburgh firm D.R. Hay & Co., who were previously employed by Sir Walter Scott at Abbotsford and had a reputation for experimental colour schemes. Hay's interior schemes no longer survive, but a series of watercolours (including this one) by George Grieg, an Edinburgh watercolour artist who specialised in painting old, picturesque Scottish buildings, records their appearance. Greig exhibited three watercolours at the Royal Academy in 1865 including this one, and also possibly this work at the Royal Scottish Academy Exhibition the following year, on which occasion the Art Journal commented that 'Mr G.M. Greig is the best representative of water-colour apart from portraiture and several of his pieces (especially the late Prince Consort's room in Holyrood) are distinguished by clear rich colour, and very clever management of detail.' (Art Journal, 1 May 1866, p. 139).

Queen Victoria appears to have first become aware of Greig's work through a birthday present of two watercolours of Scottish coastal scenes from her mother, the Duchess of Kent, in 1861; these gained extra emotional significance as the Duchess died two months before Victoria's birthday, and the Queen recorded in her journal receiving the '2 views in Cramond, in watercolours which were ordered by beloved Mama & are still her gift. Most touching!' (Queen Victoria's Journal, 24 May 1861). She then commissioned Greig herself, requesting a series of interior views of her rooms at the Palace of Holyroodhouse (including this one) and ten depicting places she stayed at with Albert during their travels in the Highlands in 1861. Only one of this latter category remains in the Royal Collection.