Queen Elizabeth discovers she is no longer young. In the melancholy of her sickness, she desired to see a true looking-glass, into which she had not looked for twenty years.

Along with The Life and Death of Buckingham (R.A. 1855, no. 349), this picture was considered one of the most important compositions by the artist in his obituary notice in the Art Journal of 1863, p. 87. Indeed it secured his election as Associate of the Royal Academy when exhibited in 1848. This was the first year that the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood showed at the R.A., and despite hitherto producing work in the manner of Charles Robert Leslie, Egg was thereafter much influenced by the group, and gave them advice and encouragement. Throughout the 1840s he had been a member of the 'Clique' of Richard Dadd, John Phillip, Henry Nelson O'Neil and William Powell Frith who were united by their opposition to the conservative policies and artistic philosophies held by the Royal Academy.