This portrait of the celebrated mezzo-soprano Maria Malibran Malibran in the prison scene of Beethoven's opera Fidelio was published three months after her death in England from a horse-riding accident in July 1836. Born in Paris in 1808 as María Felicitas García Sitches into a famous Spanish musical family, her father Manuel García was a celebrated tenor much admired by Rossini. She was briefly married to the banker Francois Eugene Malibran, and became famous in the United States and in Europe before moving to London in 1834. Her death prompted Madam Tussaud to feature a waxwork of her in her new premises in Baker Street. It drew grieveing crowds who mourned her tragic death at the young age of 28.