This portrait of the two sisters was commissioned by their mother, Madame Elise Pinschof, as a birthday present for their father, Herr Carl Pinschof. Carl was a merchant, economist and Victoria’s honorary Austro-Hungarian consul, while Elise (née Wiedermann) was an accomplished singer and vocal teacher at Melbourne’s Conservatorium. The Viennese couple were among the foremost art patrons in Melbourne. Roberts also made portraits of Elise, a third daughter Louise, and included both parents in his monumental Big Picture (nos 68 and 250).