Desmarées was a Swedish painter active in Germany. Initially a pupil of his uncle, Martin van Mytens II in Stockholm, he later became his assistant and collaborator. He left Sweden in 1724, travelling to Amsterdam and then Nuremberg to continue his training. He studied briefly in Venice with Giovanni Battista Piazetta in 1725, returning to Bavaria in 1728. Two years later he was appointed as court painter to Elector Charles in Munich and here he was involved in the decoration of the Ancestral Gallery (Ahnengalerie) at Munich Residenz. From 1745-49 and 1753-54 he was in Bonn working for Prince-Bishop Clemens August of Cologne.

Charles, eldest son of Maximillian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria and the Polish princess Theresa Kunegunda, was born in Brussels. During the politically turbulent times of the early 18th century his family was divided and both his parents spent time in exile. In 1722 he married Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria and four years later, after the death of his father, Charles became Prince-Elector of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1742 he was elected emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. His reign represented the height of the Bavaria Rococo era. The grand summer palace of Nymphenburg was completed and he commissioned the building of the Ancestral Gallery at the Munich Residenz.

This is probably a version of the portrait by Desmarées depicting the Prince seated on a grassy bank, holding the butt of a gun, with two dogs at his feet, with dead game recorded at the Nymphenburg Palace. This portrait is one of a pair of identical dimensions and frame design; the other depicts the sitter’s younger brother, Clement Augustus, Elector and Duke of Bavaria, Archbishop of Cologne (RCIN 403015). That portrait seems to be the one mentioned in a payment made by Frederick, Prince of Wales, in 1747; in which case both were probably acquired by him at that time.