The Italian soprano Angelica Catalani (1780-1849) was already an established star in Italy, Spain, Portugal and France before her sensational debut in England at London's King's Theatre in Marco Portogallo's opera Il Morto di Semiramide at the King's Theatre on 15 December 1806. She soon became one of the highest-paid opera stars on the English stage, reigning as the prima donna of opera in England until 1813 when she left the King's Theatre, having tried unsuccessfully to buy it. She sang the role of Susanna in the original London production of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro at the Pantheon on May 1812, was fêted by nobility and royalty, and painted by many artists.

This print was made by the London based engraver Samuel Freeman (1773-1857) who specialised in stipple engraving, a method of printing that could accurately represent the softness and fluidity of crayon drawings. Prints of actors and singers were much in demand because of the level of fame that the stars could achieve, and one of Freeman's earliest engravings was of the actor manager David Garrick, after a portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds. The original of this portrait of Catalani was by the Irish miniaturist and portrait painter Adam Buck (1759-1833) whose small full-length portraits were often done in water-colour or in wax crayon. Buck moved to London from Cork in 1795 where he became a fashionable portrait painter in the classical style, exhibiting over 170 miniatures and small full-length portraits at the Royal Academy between 1795 and 1833. Madame Catalani was one of his patrons, along with the actor-manager John Philip Kemble, who was criticised in 1809 for having to enlarge Covent Garden Theatre and raise its prices to afford to engage Catalani.

This portrait was printed by William Holland in January 1807, both on paper and on silk, the silk version being more luxurious and probably more expensive.