The portraits of Bettine and Achim von Arnim’s daughters were painted in the early 1840s by one of their friends, Caroline Bardua. The four companions were among the co-founders of the Kaffeter circle in 1843, a group of young women who met to share their literary, musical, and artistic works. Bardua portrays the writer Maximiliane with a book, Armgart as an artist, and Gisela with a pencil – an allusion to both her stories and paintings.