The pastel was painted by Arthur Pond, influenced by, and based possibly on, an original work by the Venetian pastellist Rosalba Carriera (1673–1757). Pond, who was employed extensively by the Delavals during the 1740s and 1750s, frequently made pastel copies after Carriera for patrons, including a thriving trade in reproducing sets of Rosalba’s Four Seasons.¹

In the later nineteenth century Apollo hung with its pendant Diana on either side of the west window in the Dining Room (now the Brown Parlour) at Doddington. At that time Cole attributed both Apollo and its companion Diana (DN34) to Rosalba. Although Pond does not mention these pictures in the works he supplied to the Delavals, he does mention in his journal of payments in March 1749 ‘F.B. Delaval Ar: fr. Season’, indicating a probable sale to Francis Blake Delaval of one of the Four Seasons series, after Rosalba.²