Frances Kemble (1759- 1822), known as Fanny, was one of the twelve children of the actor-manager Roger Kemble and Sarah Ward, and sister to the actors Sarah Kemble (later Siddons), John Philip Kemble, Stephen Kemble and Charles Kemble. She appeared on stage in Bath and Bristol in 1780-1781 and made her first London stage appearance on in 1783, but appears to have given up acting after her marriage in 1786 to Francis Twiss at St. Giles in the Fields.

The engraver John Jones (ca.1755-1797) lived in London's Great Portland Street 1783 and produced a large number of mezzotints and stipple engravings that he mostly published himself, chiefly from portraits by Joshua Reynolds, George Romney, and other contemporary painters. He exhibited with the Incorporated Society of Artists from 1775 to 1791 and in 1790 was appointed engraver extraordinary to the Prince of Wales. He was also principal engraver to the Duke of York. This mezzotint of Fanny was after an original painting by the fashionable portrait painter John Downman (1749-1824), a pupil of Benjamin West and one of the first intake of students at the Royal Academy iin 1769.