Paul Emil Jacobs (1802-1866) is largely known as a painter of historical subjects. In 1818 he became a pupil at the Munich Academy and subsequently established himself in Frankfurt as a portraitist. After a visit to St. Petersburg in 1830, Jacobs became a member of the Academy there. However, Gotha became the artist’s chief place of residence from 1834 and it was there that he was appointed court painter and aulic counsellor to the Duke. In 2002 an exhibition at the castle in Gotha marked the bicentennial anniversary of Jacobs' birth.

This is a posthumous portrait after one executed in 1812 by Ludwig Döll, in the Museum of Schloss Friedenstein in Gotha. It depicts the Prince Consort’s mother and first wife of Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1784-1844), as a quasi-mythological figure. Swathed in a green shawl trimmed with gold brocade, the Duchess appears to have turned to glance over her right shoulder, her gaze directly meeting that of the viewer. Her left hand encircles the head of a white cabbage rose.

This is one of two portraits of Princess Louise, considered to be after Ludwig Döll, in the Royal Collection (see also RCIN 403688). In addition there are two copies of a group portrait after the same artist, depicting the Princess with her sons Ernst and Albert (RCIN 404517, 400951).