Frances Abington (née Barton) as Miss Prue in William Congreve’s “Love for Love”

Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1723–1792

1771

Oil on canvas

Yale Center for British Art

A woman in a pink dress with lace trim sits with her arms resting on a wooden chair, a small dog at her side. She has her fingers to her lips. 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. Abingt