SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS (1723-1792)

Mrs Abington as Miss Prue in “Love for Love” (1771)

Oil on canvas (77 x 64 cm)

Yale Center for British Art, Yale, Connecticut, USA

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When this portrait was shown as Portrait of a Lady at the third annual exhibition of the Royal Academy, Horace Walpole noted that was “easy and very like” Walpole’s comment proves that he immediately recognized the painting as a portrait of his friend the actress Mrs Abington.

Mrs Abington was born Frances Barton in 1737. She began her career as a flower girl and a 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 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.

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 the sitter: the artist depicts her not simply as Mrs Abington but Mrs Abington in her role of the naive country girl Miss Prue. The thoughtful expression of the heroine, pondering about her future, is conveyed by Reynolds in a subtle but convincing manner. The ethereal quality of the lace that decorates her sleeves has been rendered with the utmost skill and flair. Mrs Abington as Prue is definitely one of Reynolds’ finest portraits.

Reynolds painted this image of Mrs Abington over the course of three sittings in the spring of 1771. An entry in his sitters’ book of that year indicates that on March 1^st the “Ruffles of the Picture” were delivered. It seems that, because of his close friendship with Mrs Abington, Reynolds painted the dress and the setting, contrary to his normal studio practice in which he would leave these parts to be completed by his assistants.