Victoria, Princess Royal, wrote to Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge on 14 December 1855 to enquire: 'Has Sir William Ross begun your miniature, dear Mama is anxious to know how it is getting on' (RA VIC/ADDA/8/1120). In her Journal, Princess Mary Adelaide reported sitting to Ross 'en robe décolletée for two hours' on 31 December 1855 and the miniature must have been completed by 17 January 1856 when, at Windsor Castle, she recorded: 'Her Majesty came in, followed by Sir William Ross with my miniature; after duly inspecting it she departed'. The miniature was with Ross in February, possibly so that it could be copied by William Watson: 'Her Majesty desires me to say that you can keep the miniature of Pcs Mary as you propose' wrote Marianne Skerrett to Ross on 7 February (RA VIC/ADDX5). The copy by Watson was commissioned by Queen Victoria as a present for Princess Mary's brother, George, Duke of Cambridge, and was recorded in her private accounts in 1856 but is no longer in the Royal Collection. Queen Victoria also paid £15 for a copy by Bell in January 1859. This was the miniature given to Victoria Mary, Princess of Wales, later Queen Mary, in 1901 after Queen Victoria's death and then given to Princess Mary, Viscountess Lascelles . It is now at Harewood House (exh. Harewood House 2001, no. 45).

Ross's miniature records the appearance of Princess Mary at the period when her marriage prospects were under consideration. In 1856 she rejected a proposal from the recently widowed Vittorio Emmanuele II, King of Sardinia, on the grounds that her Protestant faith would undermine the King's position. Queen Victoria declined to intervene in the matter, insisting that the decision should rest entirely with the Princess. However, she retained a keen interest in her cousin's marital prospects, preserving an 'anxious wish for her happiness and welfare – which I have as much at heart as if she were my own sister' (Letters 1907, III, p. 266). An acceptable suitor was eventually found a decade later in the form of Francis, Duke of Teck, only son of Alexander, Duke of Württemberg.