It depicts
Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the
Viennese-born member of
House Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. On 27 April 1840 she married
Prince Louis, Duke of Nemours at the
Château de Saint-Cloud. He was the second son of
Louis Philippe I, the French Monarch. This
dynastic match further strengthened the ties between France and Britain as Duchess Victoria was a first cousin of both
Queen Victoria and
Prince Albert. The couple had four children together. She died at the age of thirty-five in exile in
England following the overthrow of the
July Monarchy in the
French Revolution of 1848. In 1852, Winterhalter painted
The Cousins, a dual portrait of Victoria and the Duchess.
Commissioned by Louis Philippe I for 4,000
francs for the
Tuileries Palace in 1840 The painting was displayed at the
Salon of 1841 held at the
Louvre in
Paris. It remains in the collection of the
Musée de l'Histoire de France at the
Palace of Versailles. ==References==