In 1639, Van Dyck married Mary Ruthwen in England. This lady of Scottish origin died in 1645.

He portrayed his wife with her hair pulled back and an oak-leaf headdress alluding to her husband's name, which means “oak” or “holm oak” in Dutch. She wears a shiny blue dress with a large décolleté, a pearl necklace and a bracelet with which she plays before the viewer in a gesture of clear relaxation.

Given his relation with the model, the artist imbues this portrait with a broad sense of intimacy and affection, embodied in her hands and gaze. With this image, Van Dyck distanced himself from the court portraits he was painting in England during those years, making instead a closer painting of a domestic and private nature.

In 1746, it appeared among the paintings in the collection of Queen Isabel Farnesio.