Only the head is finished in this sketch for a miniature, with the coat and collar lightly indicated. Robert Baddeley (1733-94) was an actor, first appearing in London at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, in 1760 and at Drury Lane the following year. He is thought to have been orphaned as a child and initially trained as a cook. One of his first employers was Samuel Foote, an actor and manager, who may have given him the idea of a career in the theatre. Baddeley was renowned and popular for his ability in roles with distinctive accents, a skill he picked up when working as a valet for employers on the Grand Tour of Europe. He played many minor Shakespearean characters and was the original Moses in Richard Sheridan's The School for Scandal in 1777, creating the role with which he would most be associated. When he died he left a cottage at Moulsey to the Drury Lane Fund for the Benefit of Poor Actors and a sum of money to enable the Drury Lane theatre company, on 5 January every year, still in their costumes, to enjoy a glass of punch and slice of cake, known as the 'Baddeley Cake'.

John Smart (1742/3-1811) was probably born in Norfolk. He won several Society of Arts prizes for children under 14 and exhibited in London between 1762 and 1811. He is known to have painted portraits of Henry Frederick, duke of Cumberland and Anne, duchess of Cumberland. In 1875, he went to India with his daughter Anna Maria and for 10 years worked for the East India Company, government officials and Indian princes. His obituary in The Gentleman's Magazine stated that 'To most philanthropic and hospitable principles, he added great eminence as an artist'.

Inscribed on the backing card in ink: Baddeley / Comedian, preceded by an illegible word in different handwriting.