David Garrick (1717-1779) was recognised during his lifetime as one of the greatest actors ever in both comedy and tragedy. He was born in Hereford and came to London in 1737 to work as a wine merchant. He made his London debut as an actor in 1741 at Goodman's Fields Theatre as Richard III. He managed the Theatre Royal Drury Lane from 1747 until 1776 and was depicted during his lifetime in many of his most famous roles.

Garrick and his wife embarked on a Grand Tour in 1763 and were in Paris at various times from 1763 to 1765 where he was treated as a celebrity and painted and sculpted by various French artists and sculptors including Liotard, Cochin, Roubilliac, Gravelot and de Loutherbourg. This bust by Jean-Baptise Lemoyne was exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1765 when Diderot praised it as that of: 'a Roscius commanding his eyes, his brow, his cheeks, his mouth and all the muscles in his face or rather his soul, to display any passion he wants and dispose of his usual self, just as others make their feet walk forwards and back or their hands pick things up and let them go'.