Ferdinand von Rayski (1806-1890), an officer in the German army, gave up his military career to travel to France. In 1834 and 1835, he followed courses taught by Horace Vernet and Paul Delaroche at the Paris École des Beaux-Arts. In 1838, he went to Munich where he began working as a portrait painter, before finally settling in Dresden. He visited Prague in 1857, followed by Switzerland in 1862, and England a few years later. He is known chiefly for his portraits of the German aristocracy, although he also executed hunting scenes, landscapes and still-lifes.

Frederick August II (1797-1854) was the eldest son of Maximilian, Prince of Saxony, by his first wife, Caroline of Bourbon, Princess of Parma. On 6 June 1836, Frederick Augustus succeeded King Anton, Prince Maximilian having renounced his rights of succession. In 1819 Frederick Augustus married the Archduchess Maria Caroline of Austria. His second marriage, in 1833, was to Princess Maria of Bavaria. Both marriages were childless.
In this full-length portrait, the sitter rests his gloved left hand on a white marble-topped neo-Baroque giltwood table, upon which sitsa polychrome Chinese vase. He wears the robes of the Order of the Garter.