The soprano Julie Dorus-Gras (1805-1896) was born Julie-Aimée-Josèphe Van Steenkiste but took the name of Dorus-Gras following her marriage to a principal violinist at the Paris Opéra in 1833. The daughter of an ex-soldier who was the leader of the theatre orchestra in her native city Valenciennes, she performed as a child and studied with her father before training at the Paris Conservetoire from 1821. She made her professional debut in Brussels in 1825 at the Théâtre de la Monnaie where she sang Elvire at the first Brussels performance of Daniel Auber's La Muette de Portici in 1829. She returned to Paris in 1830 where she made her debut at the Paris Opera as the Countess in Rossini's Le Comte Ory, 9 November 1830, and created roles in the world premieres of several notable operas, including Alice in Giacomo Meyerbeer's Robert le Diable, 21 November 1831, Oscar in Daniel Auber's Gustave III, 27 February 1833, Princess Eudoxie in Fromental Halévy's La Juive, 23 February 1835, Marguerite de Valois in Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots, 29 February 1836, Ginevra in Halévy's Guido et Ginevra, 5 March 1838, Teresa in Berlioz's Benvenuto Cellini, 10 September 1838, and Pauline in the French version of Gaetano Donizetti's Les Martyrs, 10 April 1840.

Dorus-Gras first performed in London at Her Majesty's Theatre with Lablache in 1839, and following her retirement from the Paris Opéra in 1845, played Lucy Ashton in Louis Jullien's London Opera Company's production of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor conducted by Hector Berlioz at Drury Lane Theatre, 6 December 1847, opposite John Sims Reeves as Sir Edgardo di Ravenswood. The Spectator, 20 November 1847 noted the forthcoming production: 'A vernacular version of Lucia di Lammermoor is already in rehearsal. The heroine is to be personated by Madame Dorus Gras, (who must have been assiduous lately, we presume, in picking up a little English,) and Edgar Ravenswood by Mr. Reeve, a new and yet untried tenor, who is said to have had considerable success in Italy.'

In a letter to his friend Auguste Morel two days later, Hector Berlioz recalled the success of the evening: ' the whole of the English press is in agreement in singing our praise. Mme. Gras, and the tenor Reeves were called back 4 or 5 times with frenzied applause. In truth they both deserved it. Reeves is a priceless discovery for Jullien; he has a charming voice which has genuine quality and is agreeable, he is a very good musician, has very expressive looks and performs with his native Irish fire.' The Musical World called Reeves' voice: 'a pure tenor of delicious quality, his tone velvety and delicious throughout.'

Simply-modelled Staffordshire figurines like this were popular mass-produced items in the mid 19th-century, made from moulds. Intended as mantelpiece decoration for display against a wall there was rarely any detail on the backs of such items, which gave rise to the soubriquet of some of them as 'flat-backs'. In this figurine the tragic heroine Lucy is holding a scroll in her hand, presumably the marriage contract between Lucy and Aruturo, which sealed her fate. A companion figure of Sims Reeves as Edgardo was produced at the time, in which he also holds a similar scroll.