A three-quarter-length portrait of Poedua (or Poetua; the usual modern spelling); the 19-year-old daughter of Orio; chief of the Haamanino district of Raiatea (Ulietea); one of the Society Islands neighbouring Tahiti.

Standing a little to the left; she is shown with her head slightly inclined; looking out of the picture to meet the gaze of the viewer. She wears a white drape of tapa cloth beneath her bare breasts and long black hair cascades over her shoulders. Cape jasmine blossom is positioned in her hair at her ears. Her right arm falls by her side and she holds a fly whisk in her right hand. Her left arm rests across her hips. Her arms and hands are covered with small tattoos. She is shown against an imaginary tropical background of sky and distant mountains with a plantain tree positioned on the left.

The portrait resulted from Captain Cook's third voyage 1776-80 and was one of the earliest images of a Polynesian woman produced by a European painter for a western audience.