Feodora Gleichen was one of the first women to be elected a member of the Royal British Society of Sculptors, albeit posthumously in 1922. She was the daughter of Prince Victor of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, usually known as Count Gleichen, the son of Queen Victoria’s half-sister and an accomplished sculptor himself. The family lived in St James’s Palace where Feodora studied with her father in his studio, before attending the Slade School of Art, where she was taught by Alphonse Legros. She completed her sculptural education in Rome and thereafter her works were frequently exhibited at the Royal Academy. Her work included large-scale public monuments but also small bronzes, bas-reliefs and busts, as well as decorative objects such as frames, mirrors and chalices. The Society of Sculptors recognised her contribution with an award created in her name to be presented to ‘a woman sculptor who has completed her training and is commencing her professional career and is deserving of assistance’.

Feodora received several public commissions, including a full-length figure of Florence Nightingale for the Derbyshire Royal Infirmary, and the classical goddess Diana for a fountain, now in Hyde Park. By far the most numerous of her surviving works in the Royal Collection, however, are portrait busts and small figures of her extended family and members of the royal household. This marble portrait of Feodora’s father seems to have been commissioned from her by Queen Victoria. There are also several portrait drawings by her, including this sensitive depiction of Florence Nightingale aged 88 (shown here), made to commemorate the sitter’s election to the Order of Merit, Britain’s highest civilian decoration, in recognition of her achievements in nursing.