This sensitive portrait of a young boy, in an elegant pose which owes much to van Dyck, dates from the early part of Lely's career in England. It is sometimes speculated whether Lely came to London with the specific intention of taking the place of the recently deceased van Dyck as King's Painter, and certainly his earliest portraits show the strong influence of his great predecessor. When he arrived in 1643 he concentrated at first on "Landtschapes with small Figures, as likewise Historical Compositions" and continued to paint these until the early 1650's. However, van Dyck's death had left a vacuum and in Buckridge's words, Lely soon found "the practice of Face-Painting more encourag'd here" and so "turn'd his study that way, wherein, in a short time, he succeeded so well that he surpass'd all his contemporaries in Europe" (Essay towards an English School, p. 445).

One of the most notable of these early portraits appears to have resulted from a commission from Algernon Percy, 10th Earl of Northumberland, one of the group of important early patrons of Lely during the years of the Civil War and the Commonwealth. Painted in 1647, this portrait of James, Duke of York, Princess Elizabeth and Henry, Duke of Gloucester, three of the children of Charles I, depicts them standing in an atmospheric Italianate landscape (Egremont Collection, Petworth). The composition and poses follow van Dyck very closely. Lely's portrait of Sir Edward Massey (National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa) is generally considered to date from the same year, and possibly to be Lely's first full length portrait of a non-royal sitter. Here the debt to van Dyck is very pronounced as the pose is closely related to van Dyck's portrait of Colonel Thomas Wharton (Hermitage Museum). In 1648 he painted his great early masterpiece, Charles I with James, Duke of York (Duke of Northumberland), another commission from the 10th Earl of Northumberland.

Charles Dormer's family had strong credentials as patrons of both van Dyck and Lely. His grandfather was Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke, one of van Dyck's greatest patrons in England. His father-in-law, Arthur Lord Capell, later Earl of Essex, had been painted by Lely in about 1647 and Lely painted several important double portraits of the family in the 1650's. Dormer himself was painted by Lely towards the end of the Commonwealth period both as part of an ambitious family group (Private Collection) and alone seated by a pillar (Private Collection). Dormer's father was Robert Dormer, a galant Royalist, who married Anna Sophia, eldest daughter of Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke. He was killed at the first battle of Newbury in 1643. In 1653 he married Elizabeth daughter of Arthur Capell - Lely's fine double portrait of her and her sister Mary, Duchess of Beaufort, was painted in c. 1658 for Capell's "noble Palace" of Cassiobury. Following her death in 1678 Charles Dormer married secondly Mary, daughter of Montague Bertie, 2nd Earl of Lindsey.

The idenitification of the sitter is based on the old inscription on the portrait. However, it has been suggested that Charles Dormer might have been too old to have been painted when a child in the late 1640's, leading to the interesting speculation that the sitter could be Philip Stanhope, 2nd Earl of Chesterfield, the older boy in the Chesterfield Portrait by Lely from the early 1650's sold at Sotheby's in June 2003. However there is little difference between Charles Dormer's date of birth and that of James, Duke of York, and there seems no significant difference in their ages if one looks at the early portrait of Charles I's three children at Petworth of 1647. Moreover, it cannot be just a coincidence that the pose which van Dyck has chosen for the young Charles Dormer is based closely on van Dyck's full length portrait of his grandfather, Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke.