The sitter was the daughter of the French artist Jean Cotelle (Meaux 1607 – Paris 1678).  Her brother Jean II (1646-1708) was also a painter.   It has always been assumed that this picture was the one exhibited at the Paris salon of 1704, along with its pendant, the Self-portrait, now lost, which has the same provenance.  If this is so, the sitter would have been in her early sixties, whereas here she appears as a rather younger woman.   It is, however, possible that this was a conceit of the artist to depict his wife as ever young, as she appears as the central figure in a family group portrait (Versailles, Château, deposited at Le Mans, Musée de Tessé) which has been dated as late as 1708-1710 on account of the appearance of his six children, including his eldest son, Jean-François de Troy.  Portraits of this type were extremely influential in England in the middle years of the 18th century where they would have been known through the medium of engraving.

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