In 1777 Joseph Warton, on behalf of Dr. John Oglander, the Warden of New College, Oxford, asked Reynolds to prepare designs for the large west window of the College Chapel. These were to be painted on glass by the artist Thomas Jervais. Reynold's scheme comprised the four Cardinal Virtues flanked by the three Christian Virtues below a large scene of the Adoration of the Shepherds with further shepherds in the lights on either side, in one of which he portrayed himself and Jervais. As Nicholas Penny notes (Reynolds, (exh. cat.), Royal Academy, 1986, p. 290), Reynolds produced highly acclaimed finished paintings of his designs for his patrons, even though they probably had no more than drawings in mind.

The present picture is a preparatory sketch for the full-length principal sketch which remains in a Private Collection, U.K. The late Sir Ellis Waterhouse who examined the present picture at first hand in the late 1960s, remarked of it (MS notes on the reverse of his photograph) 'this seemed, tho' rough in execution, to be by Sir Joshua himself'. All of the principal designs for the window were bequeathed by the artist to his niece Mary Palmer, Marchioness of Thomond.