Houckgeest was probably in England when he painted Charles I dining in public (CW 87, 402966, signed and dated 1635). This work was probably executed at the same time presumably for the same patron. The English taste for this type of work was established by Hendrick van Steenwyck II, who worked in London from 1628 to 1637. Steenwyck and Houckgeest begin by demonstrating perfectly-executed 'extreme' perspective: this painting requires a close view-point (giving width of vision) as well as demonstrating the effect of a vista opening up into the far distance. The perspective is then enlivened with dramatic and unexpected light effects - the brightest point on the extreme right, the foreground in shadow - to give an arbitrary and uncontrived air. Finally a narrative is added, but enacted by tiny figures in the middle ground and half-concealed by the architecture. In this case a regal figure offers to a startled woman an array of gifts and fine clothes proferred by fauning servants, while courtiers go about their business. This could illustrate an episode in the story of David and Bathsheba or Esther and Ahasuerus.

The painting appears in Pyne's illustrated 'Royal Residences' of 1819, hanging in The Queen's Closet at Kensington Palace (RCIN 922154).