This full-length double portrait depicts Marie-Claire de Croÿ (1605-1664) with her son, Philippe-Eugène. Outfitted in luxurious materials—pearls, lace collar, velvet coat, and cloth-of-silver dress—she embodies her elite role at the Spanish court in Brussels, capital of the Southern Netherlands. Croÿ belonged to one of the principal noble families of the region and was made duchess of Havré by King Philip IV of Spain upon her marriage in 1627. Anthony van Dyck, the most sought-after European portraitist of his day, created this painting during a brief stay in the Netherlands after his appointment in 1632 as court painter to Charles I of England.