Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach 1811-1890) the younger daughter of Charles Frederick, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, married, in 1829, Prince William of Prussia, later William I, King of Prussia and German Emperor. A friend of Goethe, she had intellectual, liberal and pro-Catholic leanings which irritated her staunchly conservative husband, and antagonised Count Bismarck. Her philanthropic concerns were demonstrated by her regular visits to see Florence Nightingale when in England. Under her influence, her son, Prince Frederick William, adopted a more liberal outlook, which ultimately set him at odds with the absolutist traditions of his family. During the visit of the Prince and Princess to London for the opening of the Great Exhibition in 1851, she became a close friend of Queen Victoria, who described their friendship as a ‘rare blessing’.

Minna Pfüller also executed a portrait of the sitter's son, Crown Prince Friedrich, and painted a copy after a portrait by Friedrich Kaulbach of her grandson, Prince William of Prussia (RCIN 400770). This work copies a portrait by Gustav Richter, c.1860. It shows the sitter almost half-length, wearing a low-cut red evening dress with a white lace shawl over the right shoulder, a brooch on a black ribbon, and pearls about her neck. She wears the Family Order of Victoria and Albert on her left shoulder.