On a trip to London to see the Great Exhibition in 1851, Josephine Grey sat to Richmond for a portrait commissioned by her parents, the year before she was married. That portrait, 'Miss Grey', is now in the NPG. Richmond's account book index records a second receipt of 30 guineas, two years later in 1853, for our picture: 'Mrs George Butler'. There has been no further record of its existence until now. 

Butler became a prominent feminist, promoting higher education for women and the welfare of prostitutes, whom, despite her strong disapproval, she believed were victims of male oppression. In 1869, Butler led a campaign to repeal the Contagious Diseases Act, which had given magistrates the power to subject suspected prostitutes to intrusive examinations, or as Butler called it, 'surgical rape'.