After first training with his father, Carl Frederik Stanley became one of the first students to enter the new Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 1755.

[1] Back in Denmark in 1768, Stanley was commissioned to design the marble funerary monument to Queen Louise in Roskilde Cathedral.

His admittance piece for the Royal Art Academy was the allegorical Amor patriae of which several examples exist in various materials.

Executed in an elegant Neo-classical style, the work shows a partly draped classical figure holding a sword in one hand and a wreath in the other.

The previous year, King Christian VII had introduced nationality laws which meant that Government posts and other public offices would in general be reserved for Danish citizens.