A watercolour portrait of two young girls wearing pinafores, one seated, one standing, on a rocky hilltop, shown against a stormy sky. Curved top corners. Dated at bottom right: Oct 1853.

Lizzie was the daughter of Donald Stewart, the Queen's Forester, and Mary was the daughter of John Symons, a merchant at Easter Balmoral. Queen Victoria thought the two girls 'dear little lassies' and sketched them together twice herself - see RCINs 980027.bx and 980023.z. There are also photographs in the Royal Collection by George Washington WIlson of Lizzie with her family, as the Queen commissioned Wilson to take photographs of the families working on the Balmoral estate in the autumn of 1861 (see RCINs 2160110, 2160383) and by Thomas Pearce of Mary Symons with her sister Victoria Alice, taken in 1857 (see RCINs 2160048 and 2160337).

The German artist Carl Haag spent the autumn of 1853 at Balmoral at Victoria and Albert's invitation. As a result he was commissioned by the Queen and Prince to paint two large watercolours of the royal family in Scotland as presents for his patrons' respective spouses - see RCINs 451255 and 451257. The studies he made for these works, as well as other Scottish scenes (such as this one), were probably also acquired by the royal couple, and were originally kept in a portfolio lettered with the title 'Original Studies from Nature in the Highlands'.