The present lot is after the full-scale oil on canvas painting entitled A Nymph and Cupid: 'The Snake in the Grass' by Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A. exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1784 (no. 177), and now in the Tate collection (inv. no. N00885). The model for Venus was probably Emma Hart, later the wife of Sir William Hamilton (the British ambassador to Naples) and mistress of Admiral Lord Nelson. In 1788, Reynolds reproduced this work for Lord Carysfort, changing the title to Cupid Untying the Zone of Venus. It is now in the collection of The Hermitage.