Thomas Killigrew, a poet at the court of Charles I, had recently lost his wife, Cecilia Crofts. Here he holds a design for her tomb and sits in a slouch of weary melancholy. His companion (usually identified as Cecilia’s nephew, William Crofts) urges him to write something on the paper he holds – perhaps an epitaph.

Acquired by Frederick, Prince of Wales, in 1747