This portrait depicts Bengali artist Pratima Devi (1893-1969), daughter-in-law of the celebrated Bengali poet and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore, whom she often accompanied on his travels; they frequently visited Klinghoffer in her London studio. She carried out at least three portraits of Pratima: the first, in oils, around 1919-20; the second, a pencil head, which The Times considered 'remarkable alike for sensitive drawing and the suggestion of light', in 1924. This later full-length painting was carried out in 1926, the year of Klinghoffer’s marriage to the Dutch journalist Joop Stoppelman. He recalled Pratima coming to Clara's studio to sit for her portrait wearing a beautiful sari and 'glittering jewellery', which the artist chose not to include in the painting. The demure pose with downcast eyes suggests a modest, gentle character, offsetting the beauty of Pratima’s finely modelled face and hands. Klinghoffer departed from this realism in the lower half of the picture, employing looser, softer brushwork to capture the translucent folds of the sari against a delicate, shimmering backdrop. When it was exhibited at Klinghoffer’s solo exhibition at the Redfern Galleries, London in the same year, The Times critic praised the upper section for revealing 'flashes of her best work', but disliked the lower portion. Klinghoffer was noted for her sensitivity and skill as a portraitist and in her youth her work was often likened to that of the old masters. One critic later remarked, ‘Her portraits have a soft focus, but what inner life!’ (The Art News, January 11, 1941).

The painting was purchased by Ben Uri in 1935, following Klinghoffer's inclusion in Ben Uri’s first mixed annual exhibition of Jewish artists in 1934 and was the first work by a woman artist to be acquired for the collection.