The sitter was a younger brother of Napoleon Bonaparte and was King of the briefly existing state of Westphalia. He married firstly Elizabeth ('Betsy') Patterson, with whom he had one son, but his brother annulled this marriage in order for him to marry the German princess Catharina of Württemberg, by whom he had three children. Later, living in exile in Italy, he married Giustina Pecori-Surez. After the creation of the second French Republic, Jérôme was named heir to his nephew Napoleon III and served as Marshal of France and President of the Senate.