The intimate relationship between Bettina Brentano and her brother Clemens, six years her senior, was the result of shared experience. Like Clemens, Bettina had to assert her individuality in the face of resistance from society and her own family. As the “loveliest you-self”, Bettina writes, in an environment where “others” were at best “borrowed non-selves, created by circumstances and peculiarities”, Clemens became her role model and confidant at an early age. The “spring wreath” that she wove for her brother many years later is eloquent testimony to this “first sibling love”.

Her exhibited letter from February 1804 – one of the few to Clemens to survive – comes from a later phase of their relationship. It shows Bettina beginning to emancipate herself from her brother. The exclusivity of the love that Clemens demanded of her was at odds with her own emotional state. The bust that Clemens commissioned as an object of “adoration” for his sister continued to play “the main role in [her] environment”, but she did not want him to send any more letters seeking to win her heart and her love. The transformation of her love for Clemens, which she describes in her letter, changed their relationship. She was soon to realise that even Clemens did not recognise the autonomy of her character, which pained her deeply.