The present study is closely related to a painting of Mrs. Comyns-Carr of circa 1889 'By Lamplight'. The sitter was a novelist and wife of the director of the New Gallery, Joseph Comyns-Carr. She also designed the costume in which Ellen Terry portrayed Lady Macbeth at the Lyceum Theatre in 1888, and which the actress also wears in Sargent's portrait of 1889

This work will included in the John Singer Sargent catalogue raisonne by Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray