Queen Victoria regularly turned to her large family – particularly to her nine children – for subject matter. Often, as in this example, she created intimate and touching portraits of her family during her periods away from public life, particularly on her Balmoral Estate in Scotland. This affectionate portrait of her eldest son, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (known as Bertie), shows him standing in front of a Scottish Loch in full highland costume, including Glengarry cap, kilt and badger sporran.

The other pages of this album, entitled Sketches of the Royal Children by V.R. from 1841 – 1859, are filled with 223 sketches of her children from their infancy to their teenage years. The album also includes a watercolour of Queen Victoria’s first grandchild, the future Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859 – 1941), below which Queen Victoria wrote: Little William of Prussia (our 1st gd. Child) Oct 1860.