The painting is considered one of the "most important acquisitions in the Museum's history". Theodore Rousseau, when Curator-in-Chief of the Museum, stated that the painting was "one of the finest works of art to come on the market in our time." The finest and best-known copy belongs to the Hispanic Society of America, New York. The Hispanic Society's copy is believed to have been painted from the original while it was in the collection of the earl of Radnor at Longford Castle. Some believe Hispanic Society copy was painted by the sitter himself, Juan de Pareja. The portrait inspired the famous 1965 novel "I, Juan de Pareja" by Elizabeth Borton de Treviño. The novel was awarded the children's literary prize the Newbery Medal in 1966. Velazquez's painting reinterpreted by surrealist painter Salvador Dalí in his 1960 work "Portrait of Juan de Pareja, the Assistant to Velázquez" which is in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art"." French-Senegalese artist Iba N'Diaye restaged the Velazquez portrait in his 1985–86 painting "Juan de Pareja agresse par les chiens (Juan de Pareja menaced by dogs)" . A central theme of the 2012 play "Disgraced" by Ayad Akhtar is a painting of the protagonist, a South Asian Muslim man, as painted by his white wife in the style of the "Portrait of Juan de Pareja".