This drawing is the only known sketch by Hamilton for his lost painting 'Don Quixote, pelted by the Galley-slaves', which was exhibited at the Society of Artists in 1776. One of two treatments in oil of Cervantes's work, the Galley-slaves was previously known through a sketch after Mortimer of a detail of the painting, on the verso of a drawing of heads after Mortimer taken from its companion painting 'Don Quixote at the Inn Gate', which was also exhibited in 1776. This drawing is in the Victoria and Albert Museum (E. 331-1961; illustrated as nos. 194 and 195 in Walpole Society, LII, 1980, cat. 11a). At the Society of Artists in 1776 Mortimer also exhibited two pen and ink studies of the heads of Don Quixote and of Sancho Pancha, also in the Victoria and Albert Musuem (E. 326-1961 and E. 327-1961)