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Creator:
Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1723–1792
Title:

Mrs. Abington as Miss Prue in "Love for Love" by William Congreve [2007, Paul Mellon's Legacy: a Passion for British Art: Masterpieces from the Yale Center for British Art, exhibition catalogue]

Former Title(s):

Mrs. Abington as Miss Prue in Congreve's 'Love for Love' [1985, Cormack, YCBA Concise Catalogue]

Mrs. Abington as Miss Prue in William Congreve's "Love for Love"

Date:
1771
Medium:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
30 1/4 × 25 1/8 inches (76.8 × 63.8 cm), Frame: 52 1/2 × 34 1/2 × 3 1/4 inches (133.4 × 87.6 × 8.3 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1977.14.67
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Subject Terms:
actress | bracelets (jewelry) | chair | costume | dog (animal) | gesture | hand | love | performance | portrait | pose | sky | stage | theater (discipline) | woman
Associated People:
Abington, Frances (1737–1815), actress
Access:
Not on view
Note: To make an appointment to see this work, please contact the Paintings and Sculpture department at ycba.paintings@yale.edu. Please visit the Paintings and Sculpture collections page on our website for more details.
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:5005
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One of Joshua Reynolds’s masterpieces, this candid portrait shows the actress Mrs. Abington in the role of Miss Prue, a character in William Congreve’s play Love for Love (1695). Frances Abington was one of the most admired actresses of her day and a star performer in David Garrick’s company at the Drury Lane Theater. She performed as the young ingenue Miss Prue to acclaim in 1769 and 1770, and this portrait was probably painted soon after. Until very recently it was believed Reynolds exhibited the portrait in the Royal Academy exhibition of 1771, but new research has shown that it was another, very different, picture of Mrs. Abington that was seen by the public. Instead, this portrait was a private picture made either for the actress herself or for one of her many admirers, perhaps explaining the provocative pose and suggestive touch of the lips, which would have been considered improper if exhibited publicly.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016-present



The actress Frances (Fanny) Barton, better known as Mrs. Abington, was one of the most popular stars of the London stage. She grew up in the slums near Drury Lane; sold flowers in Covent Garden (where she was called “Nosegay Fan”); worked for a French milliner in Cockspur Street, then for the cook and future comedian Robert Baddeley, who gave Fanny her first big break. She married James Abington, one of the King’s trumpeters, and became a star in the actor-manager David Garrick’s Drury Lane Company. She created the role of Lady Teazle in Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s The School for Scandal (1777). Here, Reynolds (an admirer) portrays Mrs. Abington in one of her most successful roles, that of the young ingénue Miss Prue in William Congreve’s somewhat dated 1694 comedy Love for Love. Showing her in character (and adopting what was then taken to be a suggestive pose), the work is both a straightforward portrait and a “historical” picture, whose associations went beyond the subject’s likeness.

Gallery label for An American's Passion for British Art - Paul Mellon's Legacy (Yale Center for British Art, 2007-04-18 - 2007-07-29)



The actress Frances (Fanny) Barton, better known as Mrs. Abington, was one of the most popular stars of the London stage. She grew up in the slums near Drury Lane; sold flowers in Covent Garden (where she was called "Nosegay Fan"); worked for a French milliner in Cockspur Street, then for the cook and future comedian Robert Baddeley, who gave Fanny her first big break. She married James Abington, one of the king's trumpeters, and became a star in the actor-manager David Garrick's Drury Lane Company. She created the role of Lady Teazle in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The School for Scandal (1777). Here, Reynolds (an admirer) portrays Mrs. Abington in one of her most successful roles, that of the young ingénue Miss Prue in William Congreve's somewhat dated 1694 comedy Love for Love. Showing her in character (and adopting what was then taken to be a suggestive pose), the work is both a straightforward portrait and a "historical" picture, whose associations went beyond the subject's likeness.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2005
The actress Frances (Fanny) Barton, better known as Mrs. Abington, was one of the most popular stars of the London stage. She grew up in the slums near Drury Lane; sold flowers in Covent Garden (where she was called "Nosegay Fan"); worked for a French milliner in Cockspur Street; and was employed by the cook and future comedian Robert Baddeley, who gave Fanny her first big break. She married James Abington, one of the king's trumpeters, and became a star in the Drury Lane Company, managed by the actor-manager David Garrick. She created the role of Lady Teazle in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The School for Scandal (1777). In this portrait, Reynolds (an admirer) portrays Mrs. Abington in one of her most successful roles, that of the young ingénue Miss Prue in William Congreve's somewhat dated 1694 comedy Love for Love. She played that part for the first time in December 1769, and the sittings for this portrait took place either in December or in March and April 1771.
Showing her in character (and adopting what was then taken to be a suggestive, or at least unrefined, pose.-.unthinkable for a lady.-.and exploiting as a strategically positioned fascinator the Hepplewhite chairback upon which she rests her arms), the work is both a portrait of unusual directness and candor, her thumb coyly hovering on the lower lip, and a "historical" picture, whose associations went beyond the subject's likeness, which Horace Walpole thought "easy and very like" (Mannings and Postle, 2000, p. 56).
Reynolds painted at least half a dozen portraits of Mrs. Abington in 1771 and two further paintings that must correspond to surviving notes in Reynolds's appointment books for 1773 and 1780. The latter of these, which is untraced, showed the actress in character once again, this time in the role of Roxalana, the English slave in Isaac Bickerstaff's play The Sultan, which was first performed in 1775 in Drury Lane. In that drama, "the playful, unequal, coquettish Roxalana," wrote Sir Uvedale Price, "full of sudden turns and caprices, is opposed to the beautiful, tender, and constant Elvira; and the effects of irritation, to those of softness and languor" (Graves and Cronin, 1899.-.1901, vol. 1, p. 5).

Angus Trumble

John Baskett, Paul Mellon's legacy, a passion for British art: masterpieces from the Yale Center for British Art , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, pp. 28, 255, no. 31, N5220 M552 P38 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA)



When this portrait was shown as Portrait of a Lady at the third annual exhibition of the Royal Academy in 1771, Horace Walpole noted that it was "easy and very like." [1] Walpole's comment, which he accompanied with the epithet "Actress," proves that he immediately recognized the painting as a portrait of his friend, the comic actress Mrs. Abington. Indeed, since Mrs. Abington was one of London's most famous actresses, it seems unlikely that the identity of the anonymous "Lady" went unrecognized by many, if any, of the visitors to the Royal Academy that year.
Mrs. Abington was born Frances-or Fanny-Barton in 1737. Called "Nosegay Fan," she began her career as a flower girl and street singer but continually strove to better herself, learning to speak and read French and Italian. Making her stage debut in London in 1755 at the Haymarket, she became a year later a member of the Drury Lane company, then under the direction of David Garrick. In 1759 she married her music-master, James Abington, from whom she was to separate in 1763, paying him an annuity to keep his distance from her and her career. She left London in the mid-1760s for Ireland, where she hoped to rise to greater fame. Her five-year Irish sojourn did indeed prove successful, and when she returned to Drury Lane it was at the direct and pressing behest of Garrick himself.
She first performed the role of Miss Prue from Congreve's Restoration comedy Love for Love in December 1769 and again at least five times before the end of the season in 1770. Although a relatively small role, her performance as the ingénue delighted her audiences and cemented her comeback to the London stage.
In choosing to paint Mrs. Abington as Miss Prue, Reynolds pays tribute both to her success in that particular role and, more generally, to her abilities as an actress. Although belonging to the more intimate, small-format female portraits popular in the early 1760s, this painting contrasts with those more "personal" images by confusing the identity of his sitter: the artist depicts not simply Mrs. Abington but Mrs. Abington in her role of the naïve and awkward country girl Miss Prue. The portrait straddles the line between what was commonly called an "historical picture," one whose associations extended beyond the sitter's physical likeness, and a straightforward portrait. Immensely recognizable as a likeness of the actress, the image comes alive with references to her role: is this the scene where the lusty Tattle seduces the silly country maiden, or is it that in which she meets Ben Legend, the seaman to whom she is to be betrothed? Certainly, the conflation of sitter and character allows Reynolds to enliven his canvas by showing Mrs. Abington as leaning on the back of a Chippendale chair-a pose appropriate only for the uncouth Miss Prue. This ambiguity of identity adds vigor to the portrait-and ultimately to Mrs. Abington's likeness-and would have delighted visitors to the Royal Academy exhibitions who reveled in such pictorial games.
Reynolds painted this image of Mrs. Abington over the course of at least ten sittings in the spring of 1771. An entry in his sitters book of that year indicates that on March 1 the "Ruffles of the Picture" were supplied; it seems likely that, because of his close friendship with Mrs. Abington, Reynolds painted much of the dress and setting himself, contrary to his normal studio practice in which he would leave these lesser parts of portraits to be completed by his assistants.

[1] Graves, 6:271.

Julia Marciari-Alexander

This other Eden, paintings from the Yale Center for British Art , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1998, pp. 98-99, no. 35, ND1314.3 Y36 1998 (YCBA)

Crown to Couture (Kensington Palace, 2023-04-05 - 2023-10-29) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Sir Joshua Reynolds - experiments in paint (The Wallace Collection, London, 2015-03-12 - 2015-06-07) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Caught in the Act - Portraits of Women in the Eighteenth Century (National Portrait Gallery, 2011-10-20 - 2012-01-08) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

An American's Passion for British Art - Paul Mellon's Legacy (Royal Academy of Arts, 2007-10-20 - 2008-01-27) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

An American's Passion for British Art - Paul Mellon's Legacy (Yale Center for British Art, 2007-04-18 - 2007-07-29) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Citizens and Kings, Portraiture in the Age of David and Goya - 1770-1830 (Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 2006-10-02 - 2007-01-09) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Joshua Reynolds : the Creation of Celebrity (Tate Britain, 2005-05-21 - 2005-09-18) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Joshua Reynolds : the Creation of Celebrity (Ferrara Galleries of Modern & Contemporary Art, 2005-02-12 - 2005-05-01) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

"Brilliant Effects" [ Jewels ] (Yale Center for British Art, 2003-07-10 - 2004-01-10) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Great British Paintings from American Collections: Holbein to Hockney (The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, 2002-02-01 - 2002-05-05) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Great British Paintings from American Collections: Holbein to Hockney (Yale Center for British Art, 2001-09-27 - 2001-12-30) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Art Gallery of South Australia, 1998-09-16 - 1998-11-15) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Queensland Art Gallery, 1998-07-15 - 1998-09-06) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1998-05-01 - 1998-07-05) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Sir Joshua Reynolds (RA) (Royal Academy of Arts, 1986-01-16 - 1986-03-30) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Sir Joshua Reynolds (RA) (Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1985-10-07 - 1985-12-16) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

A Plethora of Portraits, Economist, vol. 299, 1 February 1986, p. 97, Available online : Gale Cengage Economist Historical Archive Also available in hardcopy at LSF; see Orbis for call numbers [ORBIS]

Abington [nee Barton], Francis [Fanny] (1737-1815), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 1, 2004, p. 109, DA28 D5 2004 (YCBA) Also available Online [YCBA]

Abington, Francis (1737-1815), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 1885, Available Online (Archive within ODNB) [ORBIS]

Sir Geoffrey Agnew, Yale's 1700 Mellon Pictures, The Times (London), , April 28, 1977, p. 9, Times Digital Archive [ORBIS]

Brian Allen, The Sport of Collecting : Paul Mellon and British Art, Apollo, v.165,no.542, April 2007, pp. 38,39, fig. 10, N1 A54 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

Elizabeth E. Barker, Joseph Wright of Derby in Liverpool, Yale University Press, Liverpool New Haven, 2007, pp. 59-60, fig. 69, NJ18 W95 B36 2007 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

John Baskett, Paul Mellon's Legacy: a Passion for British Art: Masterpieces from the Yale Center for British Art, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, pp. 28, 255, no. 31, N5220 M552 P38 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

British Art at Yale, Apollo, v.105, April 1977, pp. 246-7, cover, N1 .A54 + OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

British Institution, Catalogue of pictures by the late Sir Joshua Reynolds, exhibited by the permission of the proprietors, in honor of the memory of that distinguished artist and for the improvement of British Art. , W. Bulmer & Co., London, 1813, no. 103, N5055 B7 A13 1813 + (RARE BOOKS, YCBA) [ORBIS]

Joseph Burke, English art 1714-1800, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1976, p. 208, pl. 56c, N6761 O9 9 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Catalogue of the pictures, casts, and busts, belonging to the Earl of Morley at Saltram., P. Nettleton and Son, Plymouth, UK, no. 27, N8640 .N6 v. 17 [ORBIS]

Georgiana Spencer Cavendish, Georgiana : extracts from the correspondence of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, John Murray, London, p. 55, By58A D491 955 (LSF) [ORBIS]

Christie's Sale Catalogue : Highly Important English Pictures c.1600 - c. 1850 : 23 June 1972, Christie's, 1972, p. 60, lot 116, pl. 116, Auction Catalogues (YCBA) [YCBA]

Cincinnati Art Museum, Thomas Gainsborough and the modern woman, D. Giles Limited, London, 2010, pp. 122..., fig. 22 & detail, NJ18 G16 T56 2010 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

Citizens and kings, portraits in the age of revolution 1760-1830. , Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2007, pp. 84-5, fig. 43, ND1314.4 C5713 2007 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 184-185, N590.2 A83 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Malcolm Cormack, Star Quality, ART News, Summer 1983, pp. 112-113, N1 A6 OVERSIZE (HAAS) [ORBIS]

William Cotton Esq., A Catalogue of the Portraits Painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds, Knt., P.R.A., Compiled from his autograph memorandum books, and from printed catalogues , Longman, London and Plymouth, UK, 1857, p. 110, no. 72, NJ18 R36 C65 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Lucy Davis, Joshua Reynolds : experiments in paint, The Wallace Collection, London, London, 2015, pp. 75-77, 180-182, no. 17, col pl. and fig. 108, NJ18.R36 J6752 2015 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Martina Droth, Britain in the world: Highlights from the Yale Center for British Art in honor of Amy Meyers, Yale University Press, New Haven, London, p. 68, N6761 .Y33 2019 (LC) (YCBA) [YCBA]

Lindsay Duguid, The Recollected Works, TLS, the Times Literary Supplement, Issue no. 5458, November 8, 2007, p. 17, Available Online : TLS Archive Also Available on microfilm : Film S748 (SML) [ORBIS]

Exhibition of works by Sir Joshua Reynolds P.R.A., 1723-1792, 18th February to 19th March 1961., Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Birmingham, 1961, pp. 31-32, no. 50, NJ18 R36 E85 1961 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Susan Grace Galassi, Flaming June, The Making of an Icon, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Leighton House Museum, London, p. 42, fig. 27, NJ18.L531 A12 2016 (LC) (YCBA) [YCBA]

Michael Glover, Scenes from Afar, The Times (London), Saturday, September 22, 2007, p. 28, Available Online : Times Digital Arcive Also available on Microfilm: Film An T482 (SML) [ORBIS]

Catherine M. Gordon, British paintings Hogarth to Turner, Frederick Warne, London, 1981, p. 57, ND466 G67 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Penelope Gouk, Representing emotions, new connections in the histories of art, music, and medicine , Ashgate Publishing, Aldershot, Hants, England Burlington, VT, 2005, p. 158, fig. 9.2, RC480.5 R386X 2005 (Haas) [ORBIS]

Andrew Graham-Dixon, A history of British art, BBC, London, UK, 1996, pp. 107-8, no. 38, N6761 G72 1996 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Algernon Graves, A history of the works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A., Henry Graves & Co., London, UK, 1899, p. 4, NJ18 R36 G73 OVERSIZE (YCBA) Also available on Microfiche: Fiche B6 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Grosvenor Gallery, Catalogue of the works of Sir Joshua Reynolds exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery MDCCCLXXXIII-IV, illustrated with photo-intaglio plates after the originals by Alfred Dawson. , Chiswick Press, London, 1884, pp. 11-12, no. 7, NJ18 R36 G76 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

Mark Hallett, Diary : Mark Hallett on his long-term relationship with Reynolds, Apollo, vol. 181, March 2015, p. 46, fig. 1, N1 A54 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Mark Hallett, Reynolds : portraiture in action, The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, New Haven, 2014, pp. 393-94, fig. no. 376, NJ18.R36 H35 2014 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Charles Hindlip, An Auctioneer's Lot Triumphs & Disasters at Christie's, Third Millennum Publishing, p.87, N8604 C57 H56 2016 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Kinda Kalof, A cultural history of animals, Berg, Oxford, UK; New York, NY, 2007, p. 183 (v. 4), fig. 7.14, QL85 C85 2007 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Sarah Kilby, Crown to couture : the magazine : fashion, style and celebrity from the Georgian court and the red carpet, Historic Royal Palaces, Surrey (UK), 2023, p. 23, Not at Yale

Charles Robert Leslie, Life and Times of Sir Joshua Reynolds, With Notices of Some of His Contemporaries , John Murray, London, 1865, vol 1: p. 226 vol 2: p. 408, 11b, no. 2 (vol 2), NJ18 R36 L47 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Charles Robert Leslie, Life and times of Sir Joshua Reynolds, with notices of some of his contemporaries. , John Murray, London, 1865, pp. 226-7, NJ18 R36 L47 (YCBA) Also available on Microfche: The Nineteenth Century: Visual Arts ; Pos: Fiche.N.4.2.357) (SML Fiche B1244 Fiche.N.4.2.357) [YCBA]

Justin Lovill, 1776 : A London Chronicle or How to Divert Oneself while Losing an Empire, The Bunbury Press, London, 2019, p. 7, DA682 .L66 2019 (LC) (YCBA) [YCBA]

David Mannings, Sir Joshua Reynolds, a complete catalogue of his paintings , Yale University Press, New Haven, 2000, v. 1, p. 55-56; v. 2, pp. 67, 417, no. 29, pl. 67, fig.1017, NJ18 R36 A12 M35 2000 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Julia Marciari-Alexander, This other Eden : Paintings from the Yale Center for British Art, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1998, pp. 98-99, no. 35, ND1314.3 Y36 1998 (YCBA) [YCBA]

John McDonald, A Feast of Mellon, Sydney Morning Herald, May 9, 1998, p. 14, Film An Sy25 (SML) Also Available Online (Factiva database) [ORBIS]

Ian McIntyre, Garrick, Allen Lane, London, 1999, no. 24, PN2598 G3 Z9 M25 1999 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Musée du Petit Palais, Peinture romantique anglaise et les preraphaelites., Exposition: 21 janvier-16 avril 1972. , Paris, 1972, No. 214, ND467 P37 1972 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Joseph Musser Jr., Sir Joshua Reynold's 'Mrs. Abington as Miss Prue', South Atlantic Quarterly, vol. 83, Spring 1984, pp. 176-92, A89 250 (SML) [ORBIS]

James Northcote, Memoirs of Sir Joshua Reynolds ..., Comprising original anecdotes, of many distinguished persons, his contemporaries: and a brief analysis of his discourses. To which are added, Varieties on art. , M. Carey & Son, Philadelphia, 1817, p. 159, Available Online (Internet Archive) [ORBIS]

James Northcote, Memoirs of Sir Joshua Reynolds, KNT. ..., comprising original anecdotes of many distinguished persons, his contemporaries, and a brief analysis of his discourses : to which are added, Varieties on art , London, 1813, p. (6) appendix, ND497.R4 N8 1813 Oversize (YCBA Rare) [ORBIS]

Felicity Nussbaum, Rival queens, actresses, performance, and the eighteenth-century British theater , University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 2010, pp. 261, 262, fig. 23, PN2582.W65 N87 2010 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Paul Mellon's Legacy : a passion for British art [large print labels], , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, v. 3, N5220 M552 P381 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Paul Mellon's legacy, a passion for British art : April 18-July 29, 2007 , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Conn., 2007, p. 13, V 1735 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Nicholas Penny, Reynolds, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1986, pp. 123, 246-47, no. 78, NJ18 R36 P452 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Gillian Perry, The first actresses Nell Gwyn to Sarah Siddons, National Portrait Gallery, London, 2011, pp. 44-45, 110, 112, fig.28 and p.112, PN2582.W65 P472 2011 + OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Martin Postle, Joshua Reynolds, the creation of celebrity , Tate Publishing, London New York, 2005, p. 190, no. 54, NJ18 R36 J68 2005 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

Aileen Ribeiro, The art of dress, fashion in England and France 1750 to 1820 , Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 1995, p.65, , pl. 67, GT736 R53 1995 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Angela Rosenthal, Angelica Kauffman, art and sensibility , Yale University Press, New Haven, 2006, p. 70, no. 32, NJ18 K218 R67 2006 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

Lindsay Rothwell, Paul Mellon's legacy : an American's passion for British art : Sackler Wing of Galleries, 20 October 2007 - 27 January 2008 : an introduction to the exhibition for teachers and students., , Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK, 2007, pp. 18-20, no. 31, V 2038 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Royal Academy of Arts, Exhibition Catalogue. 1771. 3d, Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, no. 3, London, 1771, p. 16, no. 161, N5054 A53 (YCBA) [YCBA]

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Simon Schama, The Yale Centre for British Art, TLS, the Times Literary Supplement, , May 20, 1977, p. 620, TLS Historical Archive [ORBIS]

Allard Sebastien, Portraits publics, portraits privâes, 1770-1830, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 4 octobre 2006-9 janvier 2007 ; the Royal Academy of Arts, Londres, 3 fâevrier-20 avril 2007 ; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 18 mai-10 septembre 2007 , Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Paris, 2006, pp. 93, 122-3, cat. 28, ND1314.4 P67 2006 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

Desmond Shawe-Taylor, The Georgians, eighteenth-century portraiture & society , Barrie & Jenkins, London, 1990, p. 110, fig. 72, ND1314.4 S52 1990 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The Rivals, The Duenna, A Trip to Scarborough, The School for Scandal, The Critic, Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York, 1998, book cover, PR3681 C67 1998 [ORBIS]

Robin Simon, Reynolds and the Double-entendre, The Society of Dilettanti Portraits , British Art Journal, vol. 3, no. 1, Spring, 2001, p. 77, Pl. 9, N6761 B74 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

Robin Simon, Shakespeare, Hogarth, and Garrick : plays, paintings and performances, Paul Holberton Publishing, London, 2023, p. 166, fig. 171, N8252 .S56 2023 (YCBA) Oversize [YCBA]

Sir Joshua Reynolds : a complete catalogue of his paintings, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, v. 1, pp. 55-56, NJ18 R36 A12 M25 2000+ (YCBA) [YCBA]

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Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1723-1792, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 7 octobre - 16 December, 1985 [and] Royal Academy of Arts, Londres, 16 janvier - 30 mars, 1986. , Editions Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Paris, 1985, pp. 35, 188-90, no. 38, NJ18 R36 P4514 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Sir Joshua Reynolds, loan exhibition in aid of the Royal Northern Hospital , Royal Northern Hospital, London, 1937, p. 36, no. 56, NJ18 R36 L65 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Sotheby's sale catalogue : Important British Pictures : 27 November 2003, Sotheby's, Sotheby's, London, November 27, 2003, p. 35, Fig. 2, Auction Catalogues (YCBA) [YCBA]

South Kensington Museum, Catalogue of the second special exhibition of national portraits commencing with the reign of William and Mary and ending with the year MDCCC, on loan to the South Kensington museum. May 1, 1867., London, 1867, pp. 133-4, no. 601, N7598 S6 1867 (YCBA) [YCBA]

South Kensington Museum, Special Exhibition of National Portraits on Loan to the South Kensington Museum, Galleries and Bays of the National Portrait Exhibition, 1866 : Shown in Seventy-seven Photographs , Arundel Society for Promoting the Knowledge of Art, London, 1867, no. 601, ND1301.5 G7 L86 1867 OVERSIZE (YCBA, Rare Bks & Mss) [ORBIS]

The Grosvenor Exhibition (First Notice), Athenaeum, no. 2931, December 29 1883, pp. 873-4, Available Online: British Periodicals II Also Available: A88 At421 + (SML) [ORBIS]

The Yale Center for British Art, An Anniversary Celebration of Paul Mellon's Great Legacy , Apollo, April 2007, p. 39, fig. 10, N5220 M552 A7 OVERSIZE (YCBA) Appeared as April 2007 issue of Apollo;; all of the articles may also be found in bound Apollo Volume [N1 A54 165:2 +] [YCBA]

Angus Trumble, The Finger : A Handbook, , Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2010, p. 128, GT498.F46 T78 2010 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Malcolm Warner, Great British paintings from American collections : Holbein to Hockney, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2001, pp. 119-21, no. 29, ND464 W27 2001 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Giles Waterfield, Mr. Mellon, RA : the magazine for the Friends of the Royal Academy, No. 96, Autumn 2007, pp. 71, 73, V 1905 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Ellis Waterhouse, An Impressive Panorama of British Portraiture, Apollo, v. 105, no. 182, April 1977, pp. 246-7, cover, N1 A54 + (YCBA) Another copy of this article may be found in a separately bound and catalogued copy of this issue located on the Mellon Shelf [call number : N5220 M552 A7 1977 + (YCBA)] [YCBA]

Ellis Waterhouse, Reynolds, Kegan Paul, Trench Trübner, London, 1941, p. 61, pl. 136, NJ18 R36 W37 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Ellis Waterhouse, Reynolds, Phaidon, New York, NY, 1973, pl. 54, NJ18 R36 W37 1973 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

Mary Webster, Johan Zoffany, 1733-1810, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 2011, p. 222, NJ18 Z68 W43 2011 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

Richard Wendorf, Sir Joshua Reynolds, the painter in society , Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1996, p. 128, NJ18 R36 W46 1996 (YCBA) [YCBA]

John Wilmerding, Essays in honor of Paul Mellon, collector and benefactor, Essays , National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC & Hanover, NH, 1986, pp. 2-3 5, fig. 1, N7442.2 M455 1986 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Gillen D'Arcy Wood, The Shock of the Real : Romanticism and Visual Culture, 1760-1860, , Palgrave Macmillan, New York, N.Y., 2001, pp. 63-66, fig. 1.7, NX452.5 R64 W66 2001 (YCBA) [YCBA]


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