Princess Sophia Fredericka Caroline Louise of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (1778–1835) was the eldest daughter of Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and Countess Augusta Reuss of Ebersdorf. In 1804, she married Emanuel, Count of Mensdorff-Pouilly. She was the sister of the Duchess of Kent and King Leopold I of Belgium, and aunt of both Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. In 1830, she published a collection of fairy tales, Mährchen und Erzählungen (Tales and Stories).

According to an inscription on the reverse this is a copy after an original by Carl Christian Vogel von Vogelstein (1788-1868). The Royal Collection has Corden's portrait of the sitter's mother, also after Vogel (RCIN 406489), and his copy of Vigée Le Brun's portrait of the sitter's sister Antoinette (RCIN 406491). They form part of a set of twelve portraits of the ancestors of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert that were recorded hanging in Queen Victoria’s Bedroom, Windsor Castle, in the mid-nineteenth century in identical gadrooned frames.

William Corden the younger (1819–1900) studied and worked with his father, William the Elder. On a trip to Coburg in 1844, William the Younger painted six watercolour views of the town for Prince Albert and copies of family portraits. In 1850 he was commissioned by Queen Victoria to visit Lisbon, in order to copy the portrait of Ferdinand, king consort of Portugal, by Ferdinand Krumholz. Instead, he actually painted original full-length portraits of Queen Maria II, and her husband (RCIN 403690, 403691, 406254, 400959). Queen Victoria regularly employed him to copy portraits in her collection, usually as presents, including about fifty by Franz Xaver Winterhalter, many of which remain in the Royal Collection. Between 1843 and 1855, he exhibited eight works at the Royal Academy.