Victoria Ena Mary Jarvis (1941–2006) was born 9 March 1941, Bury, West Sussex, daughter of Anthony Robert Mathias of Weston Turville, Buckinghamshire. She was the wife of Antony George Jarvis (b. 1938), and the mother of Sophie Camilla Arias, Claire Birch and Katherine Antonia Meyer.

Richard Foster, the painter of the present portrait and its pendant of Antony Jarvis (DN41) was born 6 June 1954, educated at Harrow and at Trinity College, Oxford. He studied at Studio Simi, Florence, and City and Guilds of London Art School. Foster has been a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters since 1976, and vice-president 1991–3. He has also been a member of the Art Workers Guild since 1980. Other portrait commissions include HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, HRH The Prince of Wales, Sir Anthony Hopkins and The Lord Home of the Hirsel.