 The picture is considered unfinished, and it is supposed that she left it in its unfinished state to obey a summons by King Philip II of Spain, where she became court painter for 20 years.This is the only known portrait of her father, but Sofonisba had painted Minerva a few years before when she made a picture of her sisters playing chess.This painting was purchased by the museum founder Johannes Hage at the estate auction of the Danish painter Wilhelm Marstrand along with a painting by that artist in 1873.