With her head and shoulders facing the viewer the old woman holds her hands up to warm them on a small brazier set on a table in the left foreground. She wears a dark hood and a fur-trimmed cloak over a low cut blue dress and a white shift. The sitter's age is evident from the wrinkles in her face and neck, and also from her mouth; though it is closed it is obvious that she has few teeth left.

This is a replica of a painting by Nogari at Dresden and a pendant to 'A Man Holding Spectacles and Resting his Hands on a Book' (RCIN 403973). The woman is possibly intended to personify 'Winter', or perhaps 'Touch'. The model of the old woman seems to occur in other pictures by Nogari, including variant compositions of the same theme. A copy of this work by John Phillip, entitled 'The Bohemian Woman', is in Aberdeen Art Gallery.