An equestrian portrait of Queen Maria Luisa of Parma (1751-1818), the wife of King Carlos IV (1748-1819), wearing the uniform of a colonel of the Guardia de Corp. This painting was made as a pair to the equestrian portrait of the King, which is also at the Prado Museum (P719).

Goya admirably emphasizes the Queen's strong personality. She mounts “Marcial,” a horse given her by Manuel Godoy (1767-1851). The Monastery of El Escorial and the mountains of the Sierra Madrileña are visible in the background

The composition reveals Velasquez's influence on Goya, with the figure in the foreground, in front of a landscape. This reference may have come from the equestrian portraits painted for the Hall of Kingdoms at the Buen Retiro palace, of which Goya made etchings in 1778, especially, Velasquez's Equestrian Portrait of Isabel de Bourbon (P1179).

The present work was registered at Madrid's Royal Palace in 1814 and became a part of the Prado Museum collection in 1819. Correspondence between the Queen and Godoy in 1799 goes into considerable detail about how the portrait was made between September and October of that same year.