Mrs. Robinson as Perdita

Richard Cosway|Mary "Perdita" Robinson|William Shakespeare

ca. 1779 · Graphite, blue chalk, and watercolor, with touches of gouache (bodycolor) · Drawings and Prints

This lovely young woman seated in a park, fingering a spindle wound with thread and accompanied by her dog, is Mary Robinson. When she performed the role of Perdita in an adaption of Shakespeare's "Winter's Tale," staged by David Garrick in 1779, George, Prince of Wales fell in love with her, and she became his mistress for two years. The artist Cosway enjoyed a long career as a fashionable society portraitist and worked in a range of media. Here he uses watercolor for a small full length image that suggestively links the subject's life on and off the stage--Robinson is seated in an English landscape, but rustic elements of her gown and her spindle refer to her stage identity as Perdita, the adopted daughter of shepherds loved by a prince.

Artist

Richard Cosway|Mary "Perdita" Robinson|William Shakespeare

Date

ca. 1779

Medium

Graphite, blue chalk, and watercolor, with touches of gouache (bodycolor)

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Bequest of Alexandrine Sinsheimer, 1958