Huntington Acquires Copley Painting
September 28 2020

Picture: The Huntington Library
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Huntginton Library and Art Museum have acquired a newly discovered painting by John Singleton Copley. The picture of c.1780 depicts the Georgian actress Mrs Mary Robinson. Most famously, her likeness was captured by the likes of Gainsborough (Wallace Collection) and Reynolds (Waddesdon Manor). This painting, however, shows her in a very different guise.
In this portrait we see (as the article linked above explains):
Mrs. Mary Robinson in the Character of a Nun (ca. 1780) is a cabinet portrait, perhaps commissioned by an admirer, of one of Britain's most famous actresses of the late 18th century. Lost for generations until it was sold in 1999 at auction as a French painting of an unknown sitter, the newly identified work portrays Robinson in her role as Oriana in George Farquhar's comedy The Inconstant; or The Way to Win Him, which she performed on the London stage in the spring of 1780.