Karl Friedrich Lessing and the Mourning Royal Couple

'Mourning Royal Couple' (1830) by Karl Friedrich Lessing; State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg

Last week I had already searched for a painter for today and found Karl Friedrich Lessing (15 February 1808 - 4 January 1880). The weather here in Amsterdam was real wintery then, with freezing cold nights and a layer of snow covering the city. The painting I had initially chosen for this post was a wintery scene of a monastery and courtyard covered in snow because I liked the painting. Then I read that Lessing was a German landscape painter who later devoted himself to historical paintings and found out that 'Mourning Royal Couple' is one of his most famous works. So since the snow has melted here and since I like portraits better than landscapes (although 'Monastic yard in the snow' is really beautiful), I have decided to show you a painting of a royal couple mourning the death of their daughter. I did a quick search on the internet in order to find out whether this was indeed a historical couple, but couldn't find anything.