This portrait is a copy of a painting by John Singer Sargent, now in the School of Design, Rhode Island (USA), who acquired it in 1919, the same year in which this copy was painted. It was presented to the Academy by Manuel Garcia's daughter. Garcia, an eminent teacher of singing whose pupils included Jenny Lind, Dame Marie Tempest and Sir Charles Santley, invented the laryngoscope and taught at the Academy for over 40 years. He is reported to have reacted to his painting by saying, 'I shall say nought to this great master of the brush, Mr Sargent, who with his creative touches in a moment brought life from void. It is a strange experience to see one's very self spring out at one from nothing in a flash...'. The conductor Sir Henry Wood learned his accompaniment skills when, as a student, he worked at the Academy with Garcia.