Jeffrey Hudson was a servant at the court of Charles I celebrated for his small stature - at the age of 30 he reached a height of 42 or 45 inches. Born the son of a butcher Jeffrey Hudson was introduced at the age of nine to the Duchess of Buckingham who released him from a pie at a dinner given to Charles I and Henrietta Maria. Thereafter he entered the service of the Queen and his career at court included a dramatic period of enslavement by Barbary pirates.

In this portrait Jeffrey Hudson's height is given particular emphasis by the unusual large scale format in which the figure occupies half the height of the canvas and is rather overwhelmed by the woodland landscape filling the rest of the composition. However in both stance and dress the sitter apes the conventions of Caroline court portraiture.

Dwarfs have been a presence at European courts since at least the later Middle Ages and such individuals typically enjoyed an important status as 'wonders' of the human form. Mary Tudor kept a dwarf called John Jarvis as a page, while Elizabeth I had a dwarf called Thomasina.