On December 24, 1793, the wedding of Crown Prince Frederick William and Princess Louise von Mecklenburg-Strelitz took place in the Berlin City Palace. Two days later, Prince Louis, the younger brother of the heir to the throne, and Princess Frederike, the future queen’s younger sister, were married in the same venue. The two couples lived in adjoining buildings on Unter den Linden, the Crown Prince’s Palace and the Crown Princesses’ Palace.

Prussian Minister of State Friedrich Anton von Heinitz suggested to his King Friedrich William II that the sisters Louise and Friederike, then 17 and 15 years old, be portrayed. Struck by the beauty and youthful charm of the princesses ever since he first saw them in March 1793, the king accepted the minister’s proposal. Initially only two portrait busts in fired clay were commissioned to the sculptor Johann Gottfried Schadow. In 1794 and 1795, two portrait busts were completed — first of Friderike and then of her sister. The clay bust of Friederike survived in its original form, but the bust of Louise — only in plaster and papier-mâché molds. In 1798, Schadow created a version of a portrait bust of Louise with a changed position of the head. He also took the opportunity to correct her deep cleavage.

There is no record of payment for commissioning the portraits. However, Schadow’s business documents show that by selling several dozen plaster casts of the portraits of Louise, Friedrich William, and Frederike, he received an income that was much higher than any fee customary at the time. The original hand-cast (art casting) bust of Queen Louise, 56 centimeters high and weighing 60 kilograms, is in the Classicism style, which corresponded to the era between 1750 and 1840, when late Baroque art was gradually being replaced by Classicism art. The studies of Greek art and architecture that began at that time awakened a genuine interest in ancient pieces. The Glyptothek in Munich, the Pantheon in Paris, and the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin are just a few examples of the revival of the classical style. Such artists as Antonio Canova, Bertel Thorvaldsen, Johann Gottfried Schadow, and Christian Daniel Rauch were at the forefront of the art of sculpture. In painting, Jacques-Louis David and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres are outstanding representatives of this style.