This is a version of a standard type of portrait of Catherine of Aragon which probably derives from an original portrait type associated with the artist Johannes Corvus (c. 1510-20). Other versions are in the National Portrait Gallery London, Merton College Oxford and at Petworth.

Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536) was the first wife of Henry VIII (1491-1547). She was a talented embroiderer and continued to make shirts for her husband during his divorce proceedings against her. Here Catherine’s white linen shift is decorated with blackwork, a style of embroidery believed to have its origins in the geometric Moorish designs found in Spain. The popularisation of both blackwork in England and the so-called Spanish farthingale, a stiffened cone-shaped underskirt, are often credited to the arrival of the Spanish queen and her entourage. Catherine wears an English or gable hood, consisting of a piece of white linen fabric edged with a jewel-set band, beneath red cloth of gold lappets set with pearls pinned up over each ear. Two pieces of black fabric hang from the crown of the head down her back. The geometric shape surrounding the face is achieve through the use of a wire support.