Nils Gude (1859-1908) was the son of Professor Hans Frederik Gude. He was initially taught by his father, and by 1877 had been accepted at the Academy in Karlsruhe, where he was taught by Eduard Hildebrandt and Karl Gussow. In the early 1880s he continued his studies in Berlin. His portraits include those of Henrik Ibsen, and his father (1889; Oslo). He received honourable mention in the Exposition Universelle in 1889.

Princess Charlotte of Prussia (1860-1919) was the eldest daughter of Prince Frederick William of Prussia and of Victoria, Princess Royal. In 1878 she married Prince Bernard of Saxe-Meiningen, later Bernard III, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, by whom she had one daughter, Feodora, Queen Victoria's first great-grandchild. Princess Charlotte sided with her brother, Prince William, in the increasingly bitter disputes between her parents on the one hand and Otto van Bismark and Emperor William I on the other. After suffering a liftetime of ill health, she died, following the abdication of her husband, in 1919. Recent medical tests performed on her remains have revealed that she probably suffered from porphyria, a genetic disorder that is believed to have afflicted her great-great-grandfather, King George III.

In this portrait the Princess is shown three-quarter length, seated in profile to the right, with her head turned slightly to the right; wearing a high-necked black dress with lace cuffs and collar, a gold bangle on her right wrist; set against a blue-green background.