As a young actress and singer, trained by Iffland, Caroline Jagemann celebrated success at the Weimarer Hoftheater under Goethe’s direction. Her father was court librarian, her brother a painter in Weimar. At the age of 25 she began a liaison with the duke, who elevated her into the nobility. The couple had four children and remained together until Carl August’s death. On commission of the ruler, the Munich court painter Joseph Stieler impressively portrayed the opera director as Portia in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice.