[6][7] He was noted for the literary works Religio Medici (The Religion of a Physician) and Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial.

[2] His wife, Lady Browne (née Dorothy Mileham, 1621–1685), came from a landed family in the Norfolk town of Burlingham St Peter.

[6][1] She was described by family friend John Whitefoot as "a lady of such a symmetrical proportion to her worthy husband, both in the graces of her body and mind, that they seemed to come together by a kind of natural magnetism".

American professor Reid Barbour has likened the pair to the pastoral poems of John Milton, with Lady Browne representing the upbeat L'Allegro while Sir Thomas is the serious Il Penseroso.

[8] The painting is 184 by 229 millimetres (7.2 in × 9.0 in) in size, and has been in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London since 1924 under the catalogue number NPG 2062.