According to the c. 1828–1830 inventory of his friend Antonio Brugada, Leocadia was situated in the ground floor of Quinta del Sordo, Goya's villa[2] which Lawrence Gowing observes was thematically divided: a male side of Saturn Devouring His Son and A Pilgrimage to San Isidro; and a female side compromising Judith and Holofernes, Witches' Sabbath, and Leocadia.

The painting's funereal air is established through the shading of the grey background, the colouring of the model's black veil and maja dress, and her sad or nostalgic expression.

The background shows a blue and white sky emitting an ocher yellowish noon-light reminiscent of one of his final works, The Milkmaid of Bordeaux.

[7] Writer Juan José Junquera wrote that the work may represent a personification of Melancholy, or given the relationship between artist and model, "the symbol of the fire of love and of the home and the presentiment of coming death".

The picture probably depicts Leocadia Weiss, (née Zorrilla, 1788–1856)[8][9] the artist's maid, younger by 35 years and distant relative,[10] although this identity has been contested.

[11] While Junquera describes the identification of Leocadia as "more romantic ... than a certainty",[6] the work bears strong resemblance to a 1805 Goya portrait more or less accepted to be of her, and which was left in her possession following his death.

Sometime in 1824, Goya lost faith in, or became threatened by, the restored Spanish monarchy's anti-liberal political and social stance and abandoned Spain to live in France until his death in 1828.

She also sold The Milkmaid of Bordeaux —for which Goya had told her not to accept less than 'one ounce of gold'— to the Count of Mugurino, but the price she received is lost.