Prince Alfred of England

Title: Prince Alfred of England
Artist: Franz Xaver Winterhalter
Date: 1865

Oil on canvas, 74.4 x 61.4 cm. Winterhalter was born in the Black Forest where he was encouraged to draw at school. In 1818 he went to Freiburg to study under Karl Ludwig Schüler and then moved to Munich in 1823, where he attended the Academy and studied under Josef Stieler, a fashionable portrait painter. Winterhalter was first brought to the attention of Queen Victoria by the Queen of the Belgians and subsequently painted numerous portraits at the English court from 1842 till his death. Prince Alfred (1844–1900), aged 21, is wearing naval uniform with the star of the Garter. He was the second son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and joined the navy when he was 14 years old, in August 1858. He served on the Euryalus and sailed to the Mediterranean, South Africa, and the West Indies, returning home in August 1861. He was promoted to Lieutenant in 1863 and, after a career in the navy, was made Admiral of the Fleet in 1893. Signed and dated: Fr Winterhalter / 1865. Inscribed on the back with the names of the artist and sitter and as painted at the Rosenau, August 1865.

Source :
https://www.royalcollection.org.uk/collection/404833/prince-alfred-1844-1900-later-duke-of-edinburgh

Maximilian van Oostenrijk (Maximilian I of Mexico)

Title: Maximilian van Oostenrijk
Artist: Franz Xaver Winterhalter
Date: Unknown

Maximilian (Spanish: Maximiliano; born Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph; 6 July 1832 – 19 June 1867) was the only monarch of the Second Mexican Empire. He was a younger brother of the Austrian emperor Francis Joseph I. After a distinguished career in the Austrian Navy, he entered into a scheme with Napoleon III of France to invade, conquer, and rule Mexico. France (along with the United Kingdom and Spain, who both withdrew the following year after negotiating agreements with Mexico's democratic government) had invaded Mexico in the winter of 1861, as part of the War of the French Intervention. Seeking to legitimize French rule in the Americas, Napoleon III invited Maximilian to establish a new Mexican monarchy for him. With the support of the French army, and a group of conservative Mexican monarchists hostile to the liberal administration of new Mexican President Benito Juárez, Maximilian traveled to Mexico. Once there, he declared himself Emperor of Mexico on 10 April 1864. Many foreign governments (including the United States) refused to recognize Maximilian's claim or regime. Maximilian's Second Mexican Empire was widely considered a 'puppet' regime of France. Additionally, Maximilian never completely defeated the Mexican Republic; Republican forces led by President Benito Juárez continued to be active during Maximilian's rule. With the end of the American Civil War in 1865, the United States (which had been too distracted by its own civil war to confront the European's 1861 invasion of what it considered to be its sphere-of-influence) began more explicit aid of President Juárez's forces. Matters worsened for Maximilian's 'empire' after the French withdrew its armies from Mexico in 1866. Maximilian's Mexican Empire collapsed; the Mexican government captured and executed Maximilian in 1867. His wife, Charlotte of Belgium (Carlota), had left for Europe earlier to try to build support for her husband's regime; after his execution, however, she suffered an emotional collapse and was declared insane.

Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximilian_I_of_Mexico

Portrait of François-Ferdinand-Philippe d'Orléans, prince de Joinville (1818-1900)

Title: Portrait of François-Ferdinand-Philippe d'Orléans, prince de Joinville (1818-1900)
Artist: Franz Xaver Winterhalter
Date: 1844

François-Ferdinand-Philippe-Louis-Marie d’Orléans, prince de Joinville,  (born Aug. 14, 1818, Neuilly, Fr.—died June 16, 1900, Paris), naval officer and writer on military topics who was prominent in the modernization of the French Navy. The son of Louis-Philippe, duc d’Orléans, later king of the French from 1830 to 1848, Joinville joined the navy in 1831, becoming lieutenant in 1836. Sent to Vera Cruz in 1838, he fought well, rising to captain (1839), and in 1840 he carried Napoleon’s remains back to France. Named vice admiral in 1844, he caused a stir with an article in the Revue des Deux Mondes comparing the naval forces of England and France, to the detriment of France. To redress the balance he urged France to acquire steamships. A great sponsor of new inventions, he was the patron of Dupuy de Lôme, architect of the earliest steam- and screw-rated ships. After 1848 Joinville went to England and in 1861 to the United States to offer his services to President Lincoln. Returning to France in 1870, he was expelled, returned under the name of Colonel Lutherod, and was exiled again, but the law that exiled the Orléans family was repealed in 1871. Elected deputy of Haute-Marne in 1871, he retired from public life in 1875. His works include Essais sur la marine française (1852; “Essays on the French Navy”) and Études sur la marine, 2 vol. (1859; “Naval Studies”).

Sources :

http://www.britannica.com/biography/Francois-Ferdinand-Philippe-Louis-Marie-dOrleans-prince-de-Joinville

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Francois_Ferdinand_d'Orleans,Prince_de_Joinville,_1843.jpg