Francesco Solimena was the leading Neapolitan painter of his time. He was the son of the painter Angelo Solimena and trained with Francesco di Maria. One of his earliest commissions was for frescoes of the Conversion of Saul and the Fall of Simon Magus in the sacristy of S. Paolo Maggiore in Naples. He dominated the artistic life of Naples during his long career, painting frescoes in many churches including the Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple (1725, Naples, Gesù Nouvo). As well as religious paintings, he also produced portraits and, although he never travelled further than Rome, his work was in demand all over Europe. His royal patrons included Charles III, the Bourbon ruler of Naples and later king of Spain, Prince Eugene of Savoy and Louis XIV of France. Solimena became very wealthy and established his own academy, which became the centre of Neapolitan artistic life and provided training for innumerable young painters.

This miniature is one of the collection of copies of 224 self-portraits by artists in the Uffizi Palace, Florence, that Lord Cowper, the art collector and patron, commissioned Giuseppe Macpherson (1726-1780) to paint. He presented the miniatures to King George III in two batches, in 1773 and 1786. Macpherson followed the original self-portraits quite closely, but copied only the head and shoulders. He inscribed the artists' names on the backs of the miniatures – several differ from those in the modern Uffizi catalogue, notably: Bazzi, Bellini, Campi, Annibale Carracci, Gabbiani, Masaccio, Metsys, Moroni, Pencz, Licinio, Schiavone and Spada. None of the miniatures is signed, apart from Macpherson's own self-portrait, which is inscribed: Giuseppe Macpherson / Autore della serie (Giuseppe Macpherson / Author of the series).Macpherson was born in Florence, the son of Donald Macpherson, a footman in the service of Alexander, 2nd Duke of Gordon. He was a pupil of Pompeo Batoni and painted miniatures and enamel portraits in Italy, France and Germany, finally settling in Florence. A James Macpherson is recorded in London and Paris in 1754 but it is not certain that this is the same person. He was described in 1776 as having a special talent for painting on enamel and as being 'almost the only painter in Europe who possesses this art to perfection'. He had a distinguished client list which included some of the crowned heads and dignitaries of Europe. In 1778, he was invited to add his own self-portrait to the famous painters in the grand duke's collection as it 'would do honour to Florence to enrich the collection with a work which shows that we still have some men of true merit' according to Giuseppe Pelli, director of the Uffizi at the time.