Ever since this painting entered the museum, the sitter has traditionally been identified as Josefa Bayeu, Goya's wife. However, the date of the painting doesn't coincide with the age of the supposed model, as Josefa Bayeu died in 1812 at the age of sixty-five. Thus she would have been fifty years old by 1798, which is the date most historians attribute to this work. The present portrait, however, seems to depict a women in her thirties, or even younger.

Moreover, some details of the clothing make it necessary to date this portrait even later, around 1812 or 1814.