Through the intervention of Joseph Warton, Reynolds was commissioned in 1777 to provide designs for new glass in the chapel of New College, Oxford. The upper register contains the Nativity, with figures of the seven Virtues below. He made preliminary drawings, full-size oil-sketches and cartoons, from which Thomas Jervais (d. 1799) painted the glass. This is the sketch for the figure of Charity, which was based on an engraving of the antique statue of Niobe and for which the actress, Mrs Sheridan, served as the model.
