Peter Paul Rubens was a Flemish painter, designer, draughtsman and diplomat. He was born in Germany, the son of a Protestant lawyer from Antwerp who had fled to avoid religious persecution. In 1587, soon after his father's death, he returned with his mother to Antwerp. He studied with local artists, became a member of the Antwerp painters' guild in 1598 and travelled to Italy in 1600. He worked for Vincenzo Gonzaga, duke of Mantua, and travelled to Spain on his behalf to take gifts to King Philip III. Rubens also spent time in Genoa and Rome. He returned to Antwerp in 1608 and in 1609, he was appointed court painter to Archduke Albert and his wife Isabella, the Spanish rulers of the Netherlands. Rubens was allowed to remain in Antwerp even though the court was in Brussels. In the same year, he married Isabella Brant, the 17-year-old daughter of an Antwerp lawyer.

There was huge demand for Rubens' work and he ran a large studio, collaborating with established artists and intervening in work by pupils, the price reflecting his own input. Anthony van Dyck was his most famous pupil. Rubens also designed tapestries, book illustrations and decorations for festivals. In 1621, he wrote 'My talents are such that I have never lacked courage to undertake any design, however vast in size or diversified in subject'. Outside Flanders, his work was sought by the royal families of England, France and Spain. For Charles I of England he painted the ceiling of the Banqueting House in London.

After the death of Archduke Albert in 1621, Rubens was entrusted with diplomatic missions between the Spanish Netherlands (Flanders) and the Dutch Republic (Holland). He visited Spain in 1628-9 and England in 1629-30 and was knighted by the kings of both countries for his part in the peace negotiations. His wife died in 1626, but he married again in 1630. His new wife, Hélène Fourment, was 16 years old, the daughter of a silk merchant and the niece of his first wife. In 1635, he bought a country house, Château de Steen, and turned to landscape painting. In his lifetime, Rubens was described as 'prince of painters and painter of princes' and was considered not only a great painter but one of the great men of his age.

This miniature is one of the collection of copies of 224 self-portraits by artists in the Uffizi Palace, Florence, that Lord Cowper, the art collector and patron, commissioned Giuseppe Macpherson (1726-1780) to paint. He presented the miniatures to King George III in two batches, in 1773 and 1786. Macpherson followed the original self-portraits quite closely, but copied only the head and shoulders. He inscribed the artists' names on the backs of the miniatures – several differ from those in the modern Uffizi catalogue, notably: Bazzi, Bellini, Campi, Annibale Carracci, Gabbiani, Masaccio, Metsys, Moroni, Pencz, Licinio, Schiavone and Spada. None of the miniatures is signed, apart from Macpherson's own self-portrait, which is inscribed: Giuseppe Macpherson / Autore della serie (Giuseppe Macpherson / Author of the series).Macpherson was born in Florence, the son of Donald Macpherson, a footman in the service of Alexander, 2nd Duke of Gordon. He was a pupil of Pompeo Batoni and painted miniatures and enamel portraits in Italy, France and Germany, finally settling in Florence. A James Macpherson is recorded in London and Paris in 1754 but it is not certain that this is the same person. He was described in 1776 as having a special talent for painting on enamel and as being 'almost the only painter in Europe who possesses this art to perfection'. He had a distinguished client list which included some of the crowned heads and dignitaries of Europe. In 1778, he was invited to add his own self-portrait to the famous painters in the grand duke's collection as it 'would do honour to Florence to enrich the collection with a work which shows that we still have some men of true merit' according to Giuseppe Pelli, director of the Uffizi at the time.