This particular type of print is called a mezzotint, a form of tonal engraving in which the design is made by pitting the surface of a copper plate with a serrated tool called a rocker, then smoothing and scraping the roughened surface so that different areas of the plate will hold varying quantities of ink. This creates a range of velvety tones and white highlights when the image is printed on to the paper.

This print depicts the artist Sir Godfrey Kneller. Kneller was born in Germany and after travelling and studying in The Netherlands and Italy, he came to London around 1676. He became a naturalised Englishman in 1683. He grew to be the foremost court and society portrait painter of his generation in England. Around 1685-1690, he fathered a daughter by his mistress. In 1704 he married the widowed daughter of a clergyman, Susanna Grave. The honours heaped upon him included a knighthood, a royal appointment as painter to the Crown, a baronetcy, an honorary doctorate from Oxford university and after his death, a monument in Westminster Abbey.

By the early 1680s Kneller's studio was in a large house in the piazza of London's Covent Garden. By 1709 he started building a substantial country house at Whitton, to the west of London. He filled this house with his own art collection, including works attributed to Rembrandt, van Dyck and Rubens.