Christopher Hewetson, whose distinction as a sculptor in Rome resulted in no less a figure than Anton Raffael Mengs sitting to him, is above all known as a portraitist. By 1780, when he was visited by the young Antonio Canova, he was already well established, and Canova's admiration for his 'molti buoni ritratti' ('many good portraits') is recorded (Hodgkinson, op. cit., p. 45, note 4). Although undated, the present bust was probably carved in the 1780s. It is close in handling, and perhaps especially in the virtuoso treatment of the hair, to the bust of Thomas Giffard of 1784, and to the equally undated bust of an Unknown Man in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Hodgkinson, op. cit., pls. XVIII d and XVII d).