The panel is incised with the mark of Melchoir de Bout, who was a member of the Antwerp Guild of panelmakers (active circa 1625-58) where he was recorded as a grounder and panel maker. Only four other panels are known by this maker, all prepared, as the present panel, with a ground layer on the reverse.

The sitter in the present picture is likely to be Jacques II, Marquis de Castelnau (1620-1656), youngest son of Jacques, Seigneur de Hauvissière and Baron de Jonville. He had a distinguished military career taking part in the seiges of Corbie and Catelet in 1636 and 1638, respectively. Soon after the battle of Nordlingen in 1645, in which he received six bullet wounds to the body but continued to fight throughout the remainder of the battle, he was appointed Maréchal-de-Camp. The following year he was at the siege of Mardik
and in 1650 he was appointed Lieutenant General, at which time he served under the Maréchal du Plessis at the seige of Rh^etel. In 1656, he commanded the army of Flanders at Valenciennes and two years later at Dunkirk he suffered a bullet wound from which he died on July 15, 1658, a month after having the title of Maréchal de France
conferred on him