The artist Edward Bird, around whom the Bristol School first formed, is seen working at his easel at his home in Portland Street, Kingsdown, surrounded by a clutter of books, portfolios, sketches and a small cast of the Apollo Belvedere. He wears the elegant clothes of a gentleman which are consciously unprotected from paint; his hair is fashionably tousled. Bird is shown as the embodiment of the Romantic artist in his studio. The curtain across the bottom half of the window provides the top light preferred by artists but also allowed Bird's friend Rippingille to emphasise his head against its dark cloth.

The reference to antiquity in the statue of Apollo and the implied assumption that an academic and serious artist should study classical sculpture, contrasts with Bird's training as a japanning artist, decorating lacquered tin-plate domestic items such as trays. Rippingille used the established formula of the artist in his studio to celebrate Bird's professional success and specifically his highly-respected and acknowledged status among the painters and collectors in Bristol. Bird was not only credited with first organizing the Bristol School's famous sketching meetings, he was also to become the city's first Royal Academician. He went on to become Historical Painter to Princess Charlotte, daughter of the Prince Regent.

Edward Rippingille, as a friend of Bird, Francis Danby and John King, was also a member of the sketching group and fully integrated in the Bristol art scene and the portrait reveals the closeness of the artists. From 1839 this iconic picture was owned by the Bristol patron and antiquarian G.W. Braikenridge and from 1962 by E.V. Rippingille Junior, a descendant of the artist.

[From: 'Absolutely Bizarre! Strange Tales from the Bristol School of Artists (1800-1840)', catalogue of an exhibition held at the Museum of Fine Arts, Bordeaux, June 10 to October 17, 2021.]