Lepec's enamel is possibly after a photograph by F. Bachofen of Darmstadt taken in 1862 at the time of the Prince of Hesse's marriage to Princess Alice, and shows Prince Louis wearing Imperial Russian uniform with the ribbon of the Order of Louis of Hesse and the neck badge of the Order of Philip of Hesse. A similar photograph of Prince Louis of Hesse in uniform is in the Royal Photograph Collection (unnumbered). At the time of the courtship of the royal couple, the Hon. Eleanor Stanley had written of the Prince of Hesse: 'He is not handsome … still he looks honest and good, and I think on the whole, the Queen and Prince were right in deciding for her' (Stanley 1916, p. 379). Prince Louis of Hesse, son of Charles, Prince of Hesse, and Elisabeth, third daughter of Prince William of Prussia, succeeded his uncle, Louis III, as Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse, in 1877. He married, in 1862, Princess Alice, second daughter of Queen Victoria, by whom he had two sons and five daughters.

Based in Paris, Charles Lepec was of Spanish origin. A painter in watercolours and enamel of portraits, genre and allegorical scenes, Lepec was a pupil of Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780 – 1867) and Hippolyte Flandrin (1809 – 64). He exhibited at the Salon 1857 – 80, in the first instance paintings, but from 1861 enamels on copper and on gold. In 1866 one of his exhibits at the Salon, a medievalising decorative painted enamel panel over 1.8 metres high dedicated to the legendary poet Clemence Isaure (Musée d'Orsay, Paris), achieved great acclaim. He was appointed Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur in 1867. Lepec also had some success in England, acquiring buyers for his work through patrons such as the goldsmith Robert Philips. His masterpiece Clémence d'Isaure was purchased by an English iron-master, Mr Bolckow of Marton Hall, Middlesbrough, and a large number of his works were said to be in the collection of Mr Morrison of Fonthill (Art Journal, 1867, p. 154). He exhibited once at the RA in 1871 (no. 986): La dame de cæur, from 12 rue de Pré aux Clercs, Paris. Lepec's technique is described in detail in the Gazette des Beaux Arts, 1893, II, pp. 433 – 5, where he is incorrectly credited with being the first to use gold plaques as the basis for his enamel work.