This image of the English composer and librettist Sydney Grundy (1848-1914) was no. 46 of the series of Bijou Portraits isued in London Society Magazine in 1883. The image is printed with a quotation from his play The Glass of Fashion produced at The Royal Globe Theatre, 26 November 1883. Grundy later complained that he could never get a revival of his play produced because Oscar Wilde had used his plot for his 1892 play Lady Windermere's Fan. Grundy is perhaps better remembered today as the librettist for the 1892 comic opera Haddon Hall, with music by Arthur Sullivan.

This image was originally produced from a photograph by The Bijou Photo Studios which operated at 204 Regent Street from 1883 until 1885. Its proprietor William Morris Crouch (1846-1907) worked as a portrait painter in Devon and in Liverpool before moving to London and taking over James Henderson's long-established photographic studio in Regent Street and renaming it the Bijou Photo Studio. In 1883 a series of 52 so-called Bijou Portraits printed by Charles Goodall & Son Ltd. was issued weekly, from 6 January to 29 December 1883, with facsimile signatures and quotations relating to the subject, as a supplement to the Saturday weekly London Society Magazine. The images were mostly of theatrical personalities but included other personalities including a jockey, royalty, and authors.