Elizabeth, Duchess of Brunswick was the daughter of Frederick II, King of Denmark (1534-1588) and sister of Queen Anne of Denmark. She became the second wife of Heinrich Julius, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Prince of Calenberg and Prince of Wolfenbüttel, with whom she had ten children, five of whose portraits - all dated 1609 and attributed to Van Doort - are also in the Royal Collection (RCIN 402627, 404914, 404963, 406783 and 407222). 

The Duchess is shown in a black dress with a standing collar made of spiky needle lace. Around her neck and draped across her body are multiple ropes of pearls, and on her left breast is a large crescent shaped brooch. She also wears pearl drop earrings and carries a pair of leather gloves. Her hair is raised up over a pad in the fashionable style of the early seventeenth century. It forms a pendant with the portrait of her husband (RCIN 405814) and in each there is a monkey on the table beside the sitter.