The English novelist, poet, and abolitionist Amelia Opie (1769–1853) befriended David d’Angers on one of her visits to Paris. David was deeply moved by her novels and described her as an "interesting, modest, and tender" woman with whom he happily spent entire days. Opie recalled that David was particularly enchanted by her Quaker bonnet, seen here, which he believed looked like a Phrygian cap, a classical symbol of revolution often seen in depictions of allegorical figures of France.