In a scene taken from Edmund Spenser’s epic romantic poem, The Faerie Queen, Una – appropriately dressed in virginal white – represents the personification of ideal truth and beauty. Recent conservation has revealed beautiful underdrawings on this picture and its pendant (no. 57) which are visible in thinly painted areas such as the dancing couple in the distance.

Purchased by Queen Victoria and presented to Prince Albert on his birthday, 26 August 1847

No. 56