A high-quality imitation, in which the Sevillian painter appears half-length in an oval frame, placing the figure in an illusionist setting, with trompe l´oeil effects.

Tobar rendered portraits for important figures of the court within the inner circle of Isabella Farnese, outstanding for his excellence in the treatment of expression and his ability to capture it in an energetic manner. He was then considered one of the best portraitists of that era in Seville. Upon the court´s return to San Ildefonso in 1733, Tobar was appointed court painter after the vacant position left by Teodoro Ardemans, for which he received a salary of 36,000 reales de vellón (Spanish copper reales) a year.

Tobar based this work on one of Murillo´s self-portraits, painted as an adult for his children and later acquired by Nicolás de Omazur and then owned by the Earl Spencer (Althorp House). It measures 1.25 x 1.07 m and currently resides in the National Gallery, London. There are also other imitations of Murillo´s original self-portrait. Special recognition deserves a version in the Prado (P2912), which seems not to have been inspired by the original piece in the National Gallery , but rather by the engraving that Omazur commissioned from Richard Collin in 1682, for which he had the portrait sent to Antwerp.