Reynolds—the first president of the Royal Academy, an influential theoretician of art, and a prominent collector—was the leading British portraitist of the late eighteenth century. This study is not related to any known painting, but the canonical arrangement of the figures (here alluding to the Madonna and child) and the elegant, classicizing style (evidently inspired by the example of Michelangelo) are characteristic of Reynolds's most accomplished Grand Manner portraits of the 1770s. He may have presented the sheet directly to its earliest recorded owner, the first earl of Warwick, an important patron for whom Reynolds prepared at least seven portraits.

Distinguished by its fluent and incisive quality of line, Study of a Woman and Child ranks among the finest figure drawings by Reynolds and complements the Museum's eleven portraits by the artist and a sketchbook from his Italian journey of 1750–52.