This work is a preparatory study for a figure that appears in Lewis' large-scale watercolor, Easter Day at Rome: Pilgrims and Peasants of the Neapolitan States Awaiting the Benediction of the Pope at St Peter's (Figure 1).

Fig. 1. Left: Easter Day at Rome: Pilgrims and Peasants of the Neapolitan States Awaiting the Benediction of the Pope at St Peter's, 1840, 30 by 53 in. © Sunderland Museum and Art Gallery, England;
Right: Detail of Easter Day at Rome

Lewis executed two versions of this subject. They each date to 1840 and he exhibited one of them at the 1841 Old Water Color Society Exhibition. The first of these works is in the collection of the Sunderland Museum and Art Gallery, while the second, which only shows the middle section of the composition, is in the collection of the Northampton Art Gallery. Lewis was in Rome from late 1838 to 1840, before traveling on to Greece and Istanbul.

Fig. 2. Study of a Young Neapolitan Woman in Rome, 14 by 10 in. Sold: Sotheby’s, London, 12 November 2013, lot 56.

Another study of the same woman, also made in connection with the large-scale watercolor, was sold at Sotheby’s (London on 12 November 2013, lot 56) (Figure 2).

The present work was previously in the Collection of Sir Bruce Ingram (1877-1963), a newspaper editor and significant collector of early British drawings.