In 2017, the oil painting was examined by art historian Bendor Grosvenor at Pollok House, the former ancestral home of the Stirling-Maxwell family at Pollok Country Park in Glasgow, Scotland.

[1] Prior to this examination, the portrait was thought to be a mere copy of a Rubens painting that had been lost.

[2] Once layers of old varnish and overpainting were removed over a period of two months by art conservator Simon Rollo Gillespie, the portrait was revealed to be the original work by Rubens himself.

[1][3] Ben van Beneden, the director of Antwerp's Rubenshuis, confirmed the authenticity of the attribution.

[1] The portrait's examination, background research and restoration process were documented by the BBC Four television series Britain's Lost Masterpieces (series 2, episode 1), which aired in September 2017.