Gómez Cros was a student of the Royal Academies of San Carlos and San Fernando, and one of the most outstanding disciples of Vicente López. Like his master, he excelled in portraiture and history painting, which is why he was named honorary court painter of Isabel II in 1846.

This drawing is an unpublished work from his youth, made as an academic exercise. It represents, in all probability, Agrippina the Younger, mother of Nero, at the moment when she orders Locusta to poison her third husband, the emperor Claudius.

● Meadows Museum – SMU (Dallas)