The portrait shows the youngest son of the builder, Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, at the age of two. As "Sheikh Ibrahim" he explored the Orient in 1809-1817 and rediscovered the rock city of Petra in Jordan. He spent his childhood here in the Haus zum Kirschgarten. He wears a modern "skeleton suit" (sled suit), which allowed children more mobility than the formal dresses of earlier times. His family's prosperity is also evidenced by the little dog, which resembles the Mexican pedigree dog, the long-haired Chihuahua.
Johann Rudolf Burckhardt (1750-1813) probably commissioned the portrait of his son from the Electoral Saxon court painter Anton Graff (1736-1813).