Marie of Baden by William Watson (1958, Royal coll.)

Marie of Baden, Princess of Leiningen (1834-1899)

A copy after Albert Graefle’s (1807 – 89) marriage portrait of the Princess dating from 1858. The original was in the collection of the Prince of Leiningen; a later copy (1859) by William Corden is in the Royal Collection (405209). The Queen judged her nephew’s new wife to be ‘most attractive’ (RA QVJ: 20 October 1858), a view widely shared. Lord Torrington, writing to John Thaddeus Delane the year after this miniature was painted, commented: ‘The Princess Leiningen who is here (her husband a Captain in our navy) is a charming little woman in every sense. She makes me wish I was 20 and born with Serene before my name’ (RA VIC/C 24/6, 14 December 1860).