The sitter was the daughter of Frederick Louis, Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Karoline Luise of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. She married, in 1837, the eldest son of Louis Philippe I, Ferdinand Philippe of Orléans (see previous lot). She was the mother of the future Count of Paris and Duke of Chartres and her descendants include the present Count of Paris and present-day pretenders to the throne of France and Italy and the kings of Spain and Belgium.
The present miniature derives from Franz Xaver Winterhalter's full-length portrait of c.1839, now in the Museum of Versailles (inv. no. MV5201).