Brunell was invited to Windsor Castle at the beginning of 1852 in order to photograph the royal family. He spent almost three weeks making portraits of the royal children. At least six different images were made, including two of the Princess Royal with Princess Alice, two of Princess Helena, one of the Prince of Wales with Prince Alfred and one of Princess Louise. The sittings probably took place on 19 January, when Queen Victoria ‘walked with dear Vic & had our daguerotypes taken in one of the hothouses which were very successful’ and on 21 January, when ‘two more daguerotypes were taken of me & the 2 little girls, very successfully’ (Journal, 19 and 21 January 1852). Brunell also went to Frogmore where he photographed the Duchess of Kent and some of her ladies-in-waiting.

Originally from Corsica, Theodore Brunell was listed in the 1851 census as a ‘professor of photography’ and living in the parish of All Souls, Marylebone, London. In 1861 he committed suicide in jail in Dorset where he had been imprisoned for causing a drunken disturbance.