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Tischbein used the group of his wife and two daughters from an earlier work, but extended the composition to include his own self-portrait. In the nineteenth century, under the instructions of Tischbein's youngest daughter Betty (1787-1867), seen here as a child sitting on her mother's lap, his self-portrait was painted over and two sides of the canvas cut down in order to reconfigure the composition with the mother and daughters at centre. This 'reworking' was only discovered in 1975 during the restoration of the work when the green curtain painted over Tischbein was removed and his likeness once again revealed.
The family portrait was commissioned in 1796 by Prince Johann Georg (1748-1811), brother of the ruling Duke Leopold III Friedrich Franz von Anhalt-Dessau (1740-1817).
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