The painting shows a demurely dressed young woman sitting against a plain blue background and holding in her lap a squirrel on a chain eating a nut; a starling sits on a grape vine (Vitis vinifera) in the background with its beak pointing at her right ear.

During this first stay, Holbein worked largely for the circle of Thomas More and his connections: his drawing of More's ward Margaret Giggs shows her wearing the same type of hat.

[2] At this stage of his career, Holbein often adapted such designs from pattern books; in his last decade he set his portrait subjects against plain backgrounds in a more iconic style.

Art historian John Rowlands judges this painting "the most charming of the portraits from Holbein's first stay in England".

King while studying the windows of the parish church in East Harling, Norfolk, the Lovell family's seat.