For most of the 19th century, Brazil lived under a monarchical regime – firstly as an integral part of the Portuguese Empire and, after Independence, as a parliamentary monarchy until 1889. The centrality of the figure of the emperor, as head of state, and of the Imperial Household, as manifestation of the power relations around the court, generated a complex system of ceremony and etiquette that guided social interactions at all levels. The granting of noble titles and honors served to endorse social and economic status, linking recipients along a hierarchy that descended from the imperial family to ordinary people, by way of dukes and duchesses, marquesses and marchionesses, counts and countesses, viscounts and viscountesses, barons and baronesses, as well as the commanders and dignitaries of the various imperial orders. 

In the context of court life, painted portraits gave visibility to the social position of the persons portrayed. Prior to the development of lithography and photography, portraits tended to be the exclusive property of wealthy people. It was expensive to have an easel painting made, and the more eminent the painter, the greater the cost of the work. Even fewer could afford to have themselves portrayed in marble, like the busts executed by Ferdinand Pettrich.