Prince Alexander of Battenberg (1886-1960) with Muhammed Bukhsh

Laurits Tuxen was the official painter of the Danish and British royal families, and this 1887 portrait of the infant Prince Alexander of Battenberg with his Indian attendant Muhammed Bukhsh reflects the complex dynamics of imperial Britain in the Victorian era. The Battenberg princes were nephews of Queen Alexandra, and this double portrait — placing the European royal infant alongside a South Asian servant — encapsulates, without apparent self-consciousness, the hierarchical world of imperial Britain at its height. Tuxen's royal commissions brought him to the English court regularly, where he documented the extended royal family with official precision.

Tuxen applies the conventions of formal royal portraiture with technical assurance — the infant rendered with the careful modeling of a precious subject, the attendant's figure providing contrasting dark tones. The setting, likely an interior at one of the royal residences, is handled broadly to focus attention on the figures.