Phillip of France, I Duke of Orléan, was the second son of Louis XIII of France and the Spanish Infanta Ana of Austria; born on September 21, 1640; died June 9, 1701, in Saint-Cloud. He was the father of Ma Luisa de Orleans, queen of Spain when she married Carlos II.

This canvas is one of a group of portraits collected by María Luisa de Orleans (1662-1689), first wife of Carlos II of Spain, which would become part of the Royal Collection. Some of these paintings must have decorated the Queen´s Gallery in the Alcázar (Madrid), a representation space where the Queen launched a decorative and iconographic program of exaltation of her dynasty. Others would be portraits of smaller relatives, generally of bust, that the sovereign would receive as a gift from them and that would decorate the private rooms of her room.