Portrait of Dorothy Langley (1668-88), full-length, in the guise of Minerva, wearing a white dress, pink bejewelled cuirass and plumed helmet, holding a spear and shield, in a capriccio landscape

The sitter was the daughter and coheir of Sir Thomas Whitmore (c.1642-1682) of Bridgnorth, Shropshire, and his wife the celebrated court beauty Frances Brooke (d.1690), daughter and coheir of Sir William Brooke of Cooling Castle, Kent. Dorothy married Jonathan Langley (1665-1701) of the Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury, Shropshire in November 1687 at Twickenham, Middlesex. They died without issue; she in 1688, and he in 1701. Jonathan Langley was the sixth and last generation of his family to live at the Abbey, which had been purchased by his ancestor William Langley on 23 July 1546 after the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

Painting ladies in court theatrical costume was in vogue throughout the courts of Europe during this period. Given her mother's connections with the court, it is possible that Dorothy performed in an actual court theatrical, and that this portrait commemorates that event. Alternatively, the guise of Minerva may have been adopted to prompt connotations of divine wisdom, invulnerability and chastity. Sir Peter Lely had painted Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland, one of the King's mistresses and a 'Windsor Beauty' (along with the sitter's mother), in the guise of Minerva (Hampton Court, London; Oliver Millar, Pictures in the Royal Collection: Tudor, Stuart and Early Georgian Pictures, London, 1963, p.125, no.257).