Roubiliac made at least four portraits of the composer Handel (1685-1759). In this one, the sitter is shown in a style known as en negligée, wearing a tasselled cap and heavy cloak. George III, a great admirer of Handel’s music, was given the bust, together with the majority of the composer’s manuscripts, by Handel’s pupil J.C. Smith. The manuscripts were presented to the British Museum (now British Library) by HM The Queen in 1957.