Circle of Pompeo Batoni (Lucca 1708-1787 Rome)

After the original of 1764 by Pompeo Batoni in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, commissioned by Garrick as a gift for Richard Kaye, in exchange for an antique gem that Kaye had found at the Baths of Caracalla. Several copies of the picture are recorded, of which the present work is contemporary to the original. Garrick travelled in Italy in 1763-5 and in the portrait he holds an illustrated edition of Terence's Comedies, copied from a manuscript in the Vatican Library, in reference to his affinity with Rome, and to his profession as an actor.