The fine technique of pastel drawing underscores the delicate fabric of the dress, the light-coloured skin, and the softly puffed hair of Charlotte Kestner née Buff. After their wedding in 1773, the young wife of the legation secretary Johann Christian Kestner moved with her husband to Hannover, where she founded a large family. The contact to Goethe soon faded. Only at the age of 60 did the now widowed Charlotte visit Goethe once again in Weimar.