Juel was the favoured portraitist of the Danish Royal family and was appointed court painter in 1780. The artist was known for his sensitive, elegant likenesses and painted many portraits of the siblings and of their family.

This is one of a pair of portraits (404343-4), depicting siblings, Prince Frederick (later Frederick VI) and Princess Louise Augusta, the children of King Christian VII of Denmark and his wife, Caroline Matilda, sister of George III. Presumably a gift for the sitters’ uncle, George III, they are first recorded in the George II Closet at Kensington Palace in 1818, where they are described (correctly in his case) as depicting the King and Queen of Denmark (nos 534-5). A portrait by Juel of their mother, Caroline Matilda, Queen of Denmark, was presented to Queen Victoria in 1687 (RCIN 403924).

Louise Augusta was widely rumoured to be the daughter of Caroline Matilda’s lover, Johann Friedrich Struensee (1737-72). She was thirteen when this portrait was completed in 1784; two years later she married Frederick Christian II, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg (1765-1814), a dynastic match intended to bind together the various strands of the Danish royal family. The couple lived at the Christianborg Palace in Copenhagen until 1794, Louise Augusta remained close to her brother, who became regent in 1784, and dominated the court. It is perhaps not surprising therefore that this portrait was described as depicting the Queen rather than Princess of Denmark.

The sitter appears head and shoulders, in a pink silk dress trimmed with green and white striped bows, lace at neck and elbows. She wears the Order of the Elephant at her breast and, in her powdered hair, a striped ribbon, roses and an orange blossom.