This painting is a copy after the Portrait of Carlota Joaquina Teresa of Spain by Luis de la Cruz and Ríos (1776-1853), now in the Museo del Prado, Madrid (inv. no. P004801). The present painting differs slightly from the prime version, which depicts the sitter in an oval trompe l'oeil frame.

The Spanish Infanta Carlota Joaquina Teresa Cayetana, eldest daughter of Charles, Prince of Asturias, and Maria Luisa of Parma, married the Portuguese nobleman John, Duke of Braganza, Duke of Beja, and Prince of Brazil, in 1785. Upon the death of John's elder brother, he became the Portuguese heir apparent, and in 1816 the regent of the Portuguese Empire. During her husband's time as Prince Regent, Carlota plotted to seize power, and had Prince John arrested and declared, like his mother, incapable of rule on the basis of insanity. In 1805, wishing to avoid a scandal, John had Carlota sequestered to the Palace of Queluz. The Portuguese royal family relocated to Brazil in 1807 in response to the Napoleonic invasion, and Carlota almost immediately engendered a political coup, dubbed 'Carlotism', in an attempt to gain control of the Spanish colonies in South America. Upon her return to Iberia in 1821, Carlota, now Queen of Portugal, allied with her youngest son, Miguel, to seize power from her husband, now King John VI, whom they held captive and forced to abdicate the throne. With the intervention of the British, John regained the crown and once again banished his wife to Queluz, where she remained until her death in 1830. Reviled by the Iberian peoples, she was known as 'the Shrew of Queluz'.