This lithograph by Richard James Lane (1800-1872) was plate 2 of Imitations of the Chalk Drawings &c of Sir Thomas Lawrence, printed by Charles Joseph Hullmandel (1789-1850) and published by Joseph Dickinson (1780-1849) in May 1830, most probably as a tribute to Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830) the original artist of the portraits, who died on 7th January 1830. The portraits were of Mrs. Siddons as Sigismunda, centre, surrounded by three of her children, Cecilia, Sally, and George, and one of her younger brothers, Charles Kemble. A proof plate in the British Library includes the information: 'From drawings (made between 1787 and 1800) in the possession of Mrs Siddons and Mr. Charles Kemble'.

In 1787, to study at the Royal Academy Schools, the young portrait painter Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830) moved to London from Bath, where he had met Sarah Siddons (née Kemble). Lawrence became a visitor to her house, where he may have sketched the portraits of the Siddons children, and by late 1795 or early 1796, he was in a romantic relationship with Sally (bottom left). He soon transferred his affections to her younger sister Maria (1779-1798), to whom he was engaged, but broke off the engagement before Maria's death from tuberculosis in October 1798, declaring his love again for Sally, who in 1803 also died from tuberculosis.