A striking portrait, this painting is a copy commissioned by Queen Victoria from Georgina Koberwein-Terrell. The making of copies was an established part of artistic activity in the nineteenth century, both for training and to serve a thriving market – many connoisseurs commissioned or acquired copies of otherwise unobtainable masterpieces or, as here, portraits of relatives, acquaintances, or significant figures for their collections. Women copyists at work were an increasingly common sight in European galleries in the 1800s. This visibility attracted some negative reaction, and such women were sometimes viewed as spectacles themselves, but the fact that many women were successful professional copyists reflects (at least partially) that such a career choice meant that they posed less of a threat to the male domination of the practice of art.

Georgina and her sister Rosa, also an artist, were the daughters of Georg Koberwein, a Viennese portraitist who Queen Victoria employed extensively to make copies himself as well as to paint original portraits. Both sisters also made several autograph drawings for the Queen, including this sensitive depiction in coloured chalks by Rosa of Marianne Skerrett, Victoria’s retired dresser who she regarded very fondly, and Georgina’s posthumous portrait of Princess Mary, Duchess of Teck (both shown below).