# Mrs. Mary Robinson \("Perdita"\) [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [GAINSBOROUGH, Thomas]() - Date: 1751-1800 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 234 x 153 cm ## Commentary Mrs. Mary Robinson \("Perdita"\) 1781 Oil on canvas, 234 x 153 cm Wallace Collection, London Mary Robinson, née Darby \(1757-1800\) was an English poet and novelist. She was also known for her role as Perdita \(heroine of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale\) in 1779. It was during this performance that she attracted the notice of the young Prince of Wales, later King George IV of Great Britain and Ireland. Her affair with him ended in 1781, and "Perdita" Robinson was left to support herself through an annuity granted by the Crown \(in return for some letters written by the Prince\) in 1783 and through her writings. Today, she is remembered both as the first public mistress of George IV, and as a woman writer of the late 18th century. ## Related artworks - [Conversation in a Park]() - [Elizabeth and Thomas Linley]() - [Elizabeth Wrottesly]() - [Isaac Henrique Sequeira]() - [Johann Christian Bach]() - [Johann Christian Fischer]() - [Lady Alston]() - [Lady Bate-Dudley]() - [Landscape in Suffolk]() - [Mary, Countess of Howe]() - [Master John Heathcote]() - [Mr and Mrs Andrews]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()