Christian and her were betrothed since before Anne Kirstine could spell her own name. Their match was made in efforts to unite two of the most powerful lower-noble families in Denmark, the landowning Griffenhjelm family and Anne Kirstine's merchant "Axelsen" one.

She was seventeen the first time she met him face to face and it was love at first sight, mainly because the first time she saw him, in passing, by accident, was in the arms of another man. His secret thus out, Christian prepared himself for having to bribe his way into her good graces in order to keep his liaison concealed, but Anne Kirstine simply told him that her virginity, too, had already been claimed, by one of her good friends, Thyra, and if he deemed it unimportant, then so would she.

Like so, they became each other's confidantes and best friends years before they finally married, when Anne Kirstine was twenty-two. They moved into a huge period apartment in Copenhagen, set up shop there as regular artists working for the Court and the King - and after two years, Anne Kirstine gave birth to their first son and the new heir to the Griffenhjelm estate, Johannes Peder.

For three years, they were allowed an idyllic, relatively free family lifestyle in Copenhagen where no one asked about their marriage or bothered either of them while they took various other lovers than each other, Christian eventually settling with his secretary, Hermann and Anne Kirstine keeping a tight group of girlfriends at her disposal. It was blissful. It was Heaven.

It was also temporary. In the year of the lord, 1781, Christian's father, the Baron Griffenhjelm of Mariendal, died after a long sick period and since there were no other sons to the family, it befell Christian to return home to Mariendal in remote Western Jutland and take over leadership of the manor house. Anne Kirstine, of course, would come with him, along with Johannes - and Hermann as well.

The manor was run-down and showed obvious signs of not having been mananged properly for years, so Christian looked at Anne Kirstine, once they'd settled in, and said, it seems my painting days are over, what a great fortune for the world, that I have such a talented wife to carry on my heritage. So, while Christian worked, Anne Kirstine would paint - her new surroundings, the new people in it, her family and a world that was slowly falling apart, also politically.

In 1781, we are historically seven years from the abolition of serfdom in Denmark. Seven years from freedom for the whole foundation of Danish society, a freedom that would inevitably destabilize everything that Anne Kirstine spent her days painting during those days, so prettily.

That's the setting.