Queen Victoria recorded her former governess's gift of her portrait in her Journal on 30 January 1843: 'I received from Lehzen her miniature, done at Berlin, which is a very good likeness' (RA QVJ). An identical version, presumably given by the Baroness to Feodora, Princess of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, is at Schloss Langenburg. At the time of the gift the Baroness had recently left after 18 years in the Queen's service to live with a sister in Hanover.

Louise, Baroness Lehzen, governess to Princess Feodora of Leiningen and Princess Victoria, youngest daughter of Joachim Lehzen, Lutheran pastor from Hanover. She was totally devoted to Princess Victoria and earned her charge's loyalty through her unerring support during the Princess's conflict with the Duchess of Kent and Sir John Conroy in her years at Kensington Palace, as well as the Hanoverian title of Baroness from George IV in 1827. The Queen wrote on 2 July 1837 (RA QVJ): 'My beloved and faithful Lehzen I cannot sufficiently praise; no words can express what she has done, what she has endured for me!! I can never never recompense her sufficiently for all, all what she has borne and done for me these 13 years! that she has been with me.' However, Lehzen resisted Prince Albert's attempts to reduce her influence over the Queen, and the two developed a deep antipathy which eventually resulted in the Baroness retiring to Hanover with a pension of £800 per annum. Queen Victoria corresponded with her former governess regularly and paid her two visits in Germany, the last in Rheinhardsbrunn in 1862. Baroness Lehzen died, aged eighty-six, in 1870.

Carl Friedrich Koepke studied at the Berlin Academy, where he exhibited 1820 – 46. As well as miniatures, Koepke also painted historical subjects and portraits in oils and watercolours.