After being married for more than ten years, the Cederströms decided to have their portraits painted. Isabella Lovisa, née Bjurberg, was the daughter of a Swedish wholesale merchant in Rio de Janeiro. Anders was a solicitor, but was best known for being a committed liberal MP who fought for the abolition of the Riksdag of the Estates. The paintings were executed by Axel Johan Fägerplan. He began his career as a history painter but gradually changed to portraits. In addition to his own practice, he assisted his former teacher, Per Krafft the Younger, with underpainting, figures and backgrounds. Some of Fägerplan’s paintings can be rather stiff, but the portraits of the Cederströms are among his best works. The expression in Lovisa Isabella’s portrait in particular is characterised by warm earnestness.