Gustavus III, King of Sweden, son and successor of King Adolf Frederick and Louisa Ulrika, sister of King Frederick II the Great of Prussia, ascended the throne in 1771. He brought about a sea of change with his reign and his court became a northern Versailles. He sent Count Hans Axel Fersen to rescue the French Royal family at the outbreak of the French Revolution and planned to use his Army to go to the help of Louis XVI but in March 1792, he was shot by Johan Jakob Anckarstm during a masked ball at the Royal Opera House and, in great agony, finally died of gangrene.
An old handwritten note on the reverse attributes the present miniature to Örnbeck but an alternative attribution to Pierre-Adolf Hall is also supplied.