A portrait drawing of Lady Ratcliffe. She is shown half length facing to the front. The drawing is largely in black and yellow chalks, with details of the head worked up in ink. There are studies of decorative details in chalk and metalpoint to the left of the sitter's cheek.

Inscribed with colour and textile notes in Holbein's hand: damast black (black damask), and schwarz felbat (black velvet).  An eighteenth-century inscription (a copy of a sixteenth-century original) at upper left identifies the sitter as 'The Lady Ratclif.'

Despite the inscription on the drawing, the identity of the sitter is unclear, as a number of women held the title 'Lady Ratcliffe'. The drawing dates from the mid-1530s, when it was the fashion for women to pin up one side of their hoods.