Grand Duchess Sophie of Baden with her Son

This is a preparatory drawing for a painting done in 1832 and today in the collection of the Margrave of Baden. The Grand Duchess, who lived from 1801 to 1865, was a daughter of King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden and Princess Friederike of Baden and married Grand Duke Leopold of Baden in 1819. Her son, Prince Wilhelm of Baden, shown here with her, was born in 1829. In the finished painting, Wilhelm is playing with a long strand of pearls that hangs around his mother's neck, while she loosely holds a sprig of greenery in her left hand. The drawing may also have served as a presentation piece or exercise in draughtsmanship, as Winterhalter had been appointed drawing-master to the young Grand Duchess in 1829.