A marriage settlement gave Sofia Juliana De la Gardie sole control of a large inheritance. However, much of her property was repossessed by the Crown in the reduction of the nobility’s estates. For decades, she pursued legal proceedings against the state, her husband’s relatives and other members of the aristocracy. Letters and court papers reveal her to be a very single-minded businesswoman. This portrait, painted on copper, shows her attired en négligé in a landscape with ruins, according to French courtly ideals.