Court Painter Nicolas Guibal and his Wife; she, facing right in fur- bordered claret-coloured coat, lace bordered green dress, pearl necklace and earrings, upswept powdered hair, holding a fan in her right hand; he, facing right in fur-bordered red velvet coat, white shirt, powdered hair, holding an artist's palette with paint brushes in his left arm, a paint brush in his right hand, statue of a head and green curtain background

Nikolaus Guibal was Füger's first master. In 1764, young Füger entered Guibal's studio at the 'Karlsschule' in Ludwigsburg. After an interruption of his apprenticeship between 1768 and 1770, he returned to Guibal in 1772.
Nicolas Guibal (Lunéville 1725-1784 Stuttgart), a pupil of Claude Charles in Nancy and Charles Natoire in Paris, was strongly influenced by Anton Raphael Mengs and Johann Joachim Winckelmann. He became Court painter to Duke Charles Eugene of Württemberg and director of the Ducal Gallery. In 1766, he married Christina Regina Juliana Greber, with whom he had two daughters and three sons.
Two variants of the miniature depicting Guibal are recorded: a smaller copy, not by Füger, from the collection of Duchess Wera of Württemberg, née Grandduchess of Russia, is discussed and illustrated in E. Lemberger, Die Bildnis-Miniatur in Deutschland von 1550 bis 1850, Munich, 1909, no. 64, pp. 72 and 338, and a slightly different version, probably by Füger, is in the Württembergisches Landesmuseum, Stuttgart (illustrated in the exhibition catalogue Nicolas Guibal, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Graphische Sammlung, 1989, p. 20).
Another similar pair of early miniatures by Füger was sold at Christie's London, 20 March 1989, lot 176.