Portrait of a lady, half-length, in a richly embroidered lace dress with red sleeves, gold earrings, holding a pearled salver with jasmine flowers, in a sculpted cartouche

When the great conoisseur Gustav Waagen saw the picture in 1856, he described it as 'Portrait of a lady of pretty features, and in a rich dress.' He added 'This hangs more favourably [than its pendant, described as 'Portrait of a man in an oval']. It is of very transparent colouring, but in my opinion, too empty in the forms and too smooth in touch for Murillo. It shows, however, a good Spanish painter, but one unknown to me.' (loc. cit.)

The collection at 5 Carlton House Terrace was mainly formed by Du Pré Alexander, 2nd Earl of Caledon (1777-1839), in the beginning of the nineteenth century. By 1856, the present picture was hanging in the Drawing Room alongside van Dyck's celebrated full-length Portrait of a lady with her daughter, then identified as the Marchesa Spinola, which is now in the Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio.