In a New Light: 500 Years of British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2025-04-01 - 2026-01-30)Sir Joshua Reynolds - experiments in paint (The Wallace Collection, London, 2015-03-12 - 2015-06-07)Painting in England 1700-1850 - From The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon (Yale University Art Gallery, 1965-04-15 - 1965-06-20)
Publications:
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)Lucy Davis, Joshua Reynolds : experiments in paint, The Wallace Collection, London, London, 2015, pp. 156-63, no. 12, color pl and fig. 100, NJ18.R36 J6752 2015 OVERSIZE (YCBA)Elizabeth A. Fay, Fashioning faces, the portraitive mode in British romanticism , University of New Hampshire Press University Press of New England, Durham, N.H. Hanover, N.H., 2010, pp. 205-6, fig. 5.1, PR457 .F34 2009 (YCBA)Alexandra Gent, Practice Makes Perfect : Reynold's Painting Technique, National Gallery Technical Bulletin, vol. 35, National Gallery Company, 2014, pp. 14, 15, 86, 87, 107 [fn 13], Cat. No. 14 [related work], figs. 10, 186, N8554 L65 35 (CONSERVATION, YCBA) vol. 35 is entitled : " Joshua Reynolds in the National Gallery and the Wallace Collection "Matthew Hargraves, "Yale Center for British Art joins Art UK", ArtUK, 24 June 2019, https://artuk.org/discover/stories/yale-center-for-british-art-joins-art-ukDavid Mannings, Sir Joshua Reynolds, a complete catalogue of his paintings , Yale University Press, New Haven, 2000, v. 1, p. 394, no. 1533, v. 1, fig. 1418, NJ18 R36 A12 M35 2000 OVERSIZE (YCBA)Painting in England 1700-1850 from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, The Royal Academy of Arts Winter Exhibition 1964-65., , Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK, 1964, p. 60 (v.1), no. 217, pl. 45, N5220.M45 R69 1964 (YCBA)R. J. B. Walker, Regency portraits, National Portrait Gallery, London, 1985, p. 418 (vol. 1), N1090 A592 (YCBA)Yale University Art Gallery, Painting in England, 1700-1850, from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon : [exhibition at] Yale University Art Gallery, April 15-June 20, 1965, , vol. 1, W. Clowes and sons, New Haven, 1965, p. 42 (v.1), no. 154, pl. 45, ND466 Y35 (YCBA)
Gallery Label:
When Reynolds painted this portrait of Robinson, the celebrated actress and writer was facing personal loss and chronic illness, which may explain her contemplative demeanor as she looks out over a cloud-darkened seascape. Due to her poor health, Robinson left fashionable London society to devote herself to writing poetry and novels as well as advocating for the rights of women and their place in the literary world. --- This unfinished canvas reveals the artist’s working process. Robinson’s face is clearly defined but her body and the background are only sketched in. Through the paint, it is possible to see that Reynolds followed the common practice of reusing canvases: another sitter’s loosely rendered face appears, upside down, in the place where Robinson’s right hand should be. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2025