Daughter of Charles Emmanuel III of Savoy and of Polissena d'Assia, Maria Luisa Gabriella of Savoy was born in Turin in 1729. She was initially destined to marry the dauphin of France Luigi, son of Louis XV, but the marriage negotiations were not successful and the princess entered the convent of Sant'Andrea di Chieri, where she died in 1767. According to the Savoyard accounts, she and her sisters, Maria Felicita Vittoria and Eleonora Maria Teresa, were portrayed in 1733 by the then not yet famous, but already very skilled, Louis Michel van Loo. Coming from the collections of the Duke of Aosta Amedeo di Savoia, the work still has its original frame.