The portrait shows a twelve-year-old girl known only as Isabella, posing in Maris' studio at 498 Keizersgracht, Amsterdam.

The first, titled Portrait of Mrs Allwood with a Fan, is currently held by a private collector and was originally acquired by the De Visscher family of Zeist in the 1920s.

[4] Another version, also titled Isabella, is in the possession of Sally Schuman[5] after her grandmother, Anna Maria Lagaay, received the painting from Maris around 1906.

The project, which expected to change the descriptions or titles of over 220,000 artworks,[7] was the subject of a debate over the importance of preserving historical context versus maximising cultural sensitivity.

[5] Due to this discovery, the Rijksmuseum once again renamed the portrait in 2020, from the revised title of "Young Woman with a Fan" to its current name "Isabella".