The tenor known as Sims Reeves (1821-1900) was the foremost English operatic, oratorio and ballad tenor of his day. He was born in Woolwich, London, and christened John, the ‘Sims’ being a later addition. After early stage appearances as a tenor at the Grecian Saloon, and for Macready’s company at Drury Lane Theatre in 1842 and 1843 he studied in Milan and on his return to Britain made a name for himself as an outstanding tenor. He performed in Edinburgh in 1847 with Jenny Lind, and later that year joined Louis Jullien’s opera company at Drury Lane. He went on to become one of the highest-paid operatic and concert performers of his day, praised for his superb voice with its authentic Italian tone. He performed privately for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, and at lucrative oratorios and concerts where he became renowned for his performances of popular ballads. He also became well-known for refusing to appear at the last minute because of poor health or loss of voice. This portrait was one of several sketches of Sims Reeves by Charles Lyall, himself an opera performer who would have known Sims Reeves in 1866 when they both performed with The Sacred Harmonic Society conducted by Michael Costa. Lyall even stood in for one of Reeves' frequent indispositions at a concert by the Society on 11th May 1866. According to The Musical Times, 1 June 1866: 'The performance of Rossini's Stabat Mater and Mendelssohn's Athalie attracted a large audience on the 11th ult. Mr. Sims Reeves was again absent from indisposition ; and his place was supplied at a very short notice by Mr. Charles Lyall, who acquitted himself of his arduous task excellently, considering the brief time allowed him for preparation'.

Lyall worked at Her Majesty's Theatre and at Covent Garden Theatre before December 1868 where according to John Hollingshead he gained a reputation as a good 'light actor' as well as a tenor. In 1868 he joined Hollingshead's company at the newly-built Gaiety Theatre where he played Harlequin to the Columbine of Constance Loseby in the one-act operetta The Two Harlequins on the opening bill for December 1868. The following December he sang in Offenbach's operetta The Rose of Auvergne at the Gaiety Theatre, and in August 1870 played Franz Millar in Adolphe Adams' comic opera Dolly at the Gaiety. In October 1870 Lyall played Dandolo in Hérold's opera Zampa, and in November Lord Allcash in Auber's opera Fra Diavolo when the critic Henry Hershee, noted in the Observer, 27 November 1870: 'Mr Charles Lyall, who played Lord Allcash is admirably funny. He appears to us to be a comedian of great talent, and sang his music like a musician.' In February1883 Lyall performed at Her Majesty's Theatre in Sir Julius Benedict's Lily of Killarney, in January 1884 at Covent Garden Theatre with the Carl Rosa Company, and in January 1886 in Massenet's Manon at Drury Lane. But Lyall was also an accomplished caricature and watercolour artist whose cartoons of the fictional charicters The Muttonians had appeared in The Musical World in the early 1870s, and who had four of his cartoons published in Vanity Fair in 1872-1873, including one of Michael Costa entitled Orchestration. In 1880 Charles Lyall was also one of the artists whose work was exhibited at The Dramatic Fine Art Gallery, 168 Bond Street, in an exhibition of almost sixty works by actors and actresses. The catalogue for the exhibition noted: 'Mr Lyall, who is equally well-known in the artistic as he is in the musical world, sends a large number of his grotesque character sketches. The way in which the peculiarities of the individuals are exaggerated, without offensiveness, displays a rare power of caricature. Mr. Lyall also sends watercolour drawings.' In 1908 several of his caricatures were published as illustrations in Forty Years of Music 1865-1905 by Joseph Bennett, including one of Sims Reeves very probably sketched at the same time as this, and another showing Reeves in bed ignoring a concert in the background at which he was clearly meant to perform.