Feodora, Princess of Hohenlohe-Langenburg with her daughter Princess Adelaide

Princess Feodora of Leiningen was Queen Victoria’s half-sister through their mother, the Duchess of Kent. Hayter’s 1840 portrait in the Royal Collection shows Feodora with her young daughter Adelaide, documenting the extended family circle that surrounded Victoria. Feodora’s marriage to Prince Ernst of Hohenlohe-Langenburg had taken her to Germany, but she maintained close ties with her half-sister throughout their lives. George Hayter was the preeminent British history and portrait painter of the early Victorian era, appointed Principal Painter in Ordinary to Queen Victoria in 1841.

The mother-and-daughter composition combines formal portrait conventions with domestic tenderness. Hayter renders the princess’s features with familial warmth while Adelaide is painted with the soft touch reserved for young children.