Provenance: By descent in the family of Thorald Læssøe.

In 1857, Thorald Læssøe married Emy Francisca Erhadine Tidonia (1825–1863), née Countess Juel-Vind-Frijs. In 1863 they had a daughter, Emmy Frijs Læssøe, who had seven children, including Asa Stephensen (1897–1979), who was the current owner's grandmother. The current owner is thus the great-great-grandchild of Thorald Læssøe.

Elisabeth Jerichau Baumann and Thorald Læssøe shared a long and heartfelt friendship. She mentions him with great veneration in several of her letters to her husband Jens Adolf Jerichau (1816–1883).

She writes inter alia the following from London in May 1860 (in Danish): “Never (underlined), with the exception of T Læssøe, have I met fellow human beings who in a more dignified and loving way thinks of and works for the well-being of others, both for the individual and for the common good.” (Sine Krogh and Birgitte Fink, “Letters from London”, Copenhagen 2017, p. 129).

The fact, that the Jerichau Baumann couple named their firstborn son Thorald (1848–1909) after Læssøe, also shows how close and important the friendship was.

Elisabeth Jerichau Baumann was an excellent portrait painter, of which the present work is a fine example. Her skills with portrait painting were in high demand among the royals and nobles. She also painted a series of empathetic portraits of her own children, several of which she brought over during her stay in London, where they attracted quite a lot of attention and provided good publicity for her as an artist.