Bernard van Orley lived and worked mainly in Brussels. Van Orley ran a large workshop which produced numerous portraits and religious paintings, as well as designs for tapestries and stained glass.

Isabella of Austria (or Isabella of Habsburg) was the second daughter of Philip the Handsome and sister of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (see RCIN 403438 and RCIN 403439). She was brought up by her aunt Margaret of Austria in Mechelen (RCIN 403441). In 1515 she married Christian II King of Denmark, and was exiled along with her husband in 1523. A portrait of her children was created by Jan Gossaert shortly after her death in 1526 (see RCIN 405782).

In 1516 Bernard van Orley was paid for portraits of Isabella and her husband Christian II of Denmark. This portrait is probably based on one of those portraits and seems to derive from the same drawing which he used in a tapestry, dated 1518, from the series of the Legend of Notre-Dame du Sablon (Brussels, Royal Musuems of Art and History).