The visual focus of the Yellow Room is the portrait of the young Goethe with a silhouette. The painting is a copy of an original by Georg Melchior Kraus made after Goethe’s arrival in Weimar. In 1778 Duchess Anna Amalia of Saxe-Weimar gave this copy as a gift to Goethe’s mother. She was delighted at the portrait of her “Häschelhanß”, and she wrote to the duchess: "We see a great likeness and are much delighted by it . . . especially since we haven’t seen him in three years. Also, he’s painted in his usual attire, a tailcoat, and I liked it best when he wore that in my presence."