Franz Xaver Winterhalter had launched his career…

Franz Xaver Winterhalter had launched his career in as a portrait painter to the rich and famous in becoming drawing master to Sophie, Margravine of Baden, at Karlsruhe.

Winterhalter had grown up with a large imagination; he had always been talented at art.

Unfortunately, he had suffered an injury to his right hand when he was twenty-one, which had affected his work greatly, but by the time he is twenty five, in 1830, his work has improved dramatically; in fact, it is reputed that he prefers his left hand over his right hand.

After winning an appointment around this time as court painter to the Grand Duke Leopold of Baden, Winterhalter gains immediate success as a portrait painter specializing in regal and aristocratic subjects.