A watercolour and bodycolour drawing of the head and shoulders of an Italian woman, looking over her right shoulder. Signed, dated and inscribed: "R. Buckner f / Rome 1844". On brown paper, which has been laid down on cream paper watermarked "[J WHA]TMAN".

This is one of six works presented by Queen Victoria to Prince Albert in 1844 to be set into panels in the west door of his dressing room at Windsor Castle. One of this series is now untraced. This drawing was copied in oils by Princess Louise in 1864 as a Christmas present for her mother, Queen Victoria (see RCIN 402569). A couple of years previously Prince Albert had acquired a different set of six works by Buckner for the north door in the same room (see RCINs 922502-7). Both series were still in position in 1928 and can be seen in photographs of the room's interior taken at that date, but were subsequently removed and placed in the Royal Library.

Buckner, who was a painter of portraits and Italian peasants, was patronised extensively by the Royal family, particularly in the 1840s. Another set of works was purchased by Queen Victoria, probably in 1845, for the east door panels in Prince Albert's dressing room, though only three of these can now be identified (RCINs 922499, 922500 and 922501).