| Method | Mezzotint |
| Artist | John Raphael Smith |
| Published | Engraved by J.R. Smith & Pubished 1802 by R. Ackermann, No. 101 Strand London. |
| Dimensions | Image 550 x 400 mm, Sheet 533 x 402 mm |
| Notes |
A nearly life-sized portrait of a young woman in profile to right wearing a in a straw hat with a wide ribbon tied under her chin, a dark shawl, and fingerless gloves holding a large bowl in both her hands. J.R. Smith Pinxt. inscribed on the rim of the bowl. This is one of a series of six portraits of women thought to be actresses done by J.R. Smith between 1797 and 1803. This portrait is though to depict Mary Wells in the role of Cowslip in John O'Keeffe's Agreeable Surprise. Mary Wells (neé Davis) (December 16, 1762 - January 23, 1829) was an English actress born in Birmingham. Her father died when she was young and her mother kept a tavern where Mary met the actor Richard Yates who arranged for her to play the young Duke of York in Richard III. She continued acting. In 1778 she married a fellow actor named Ezra Wells who had played Romeo to her Juliet. The marriage was short lived and he abandoned her. Wells made her London theatre debut on June 1, 1781 where after she played a number of different roles at Haymarket, Drury and Covent Garden. Mary lived with and had a relationship with writer, playwright, and dandy Edward Topham with whom she had four daughters and managed his newspaper World and Fashionable Advertiser. Topham left Wells after five years. In 1789 in Weymouth Mary tried to capture the attention of George III and his wife on the esplanade. When this failed she hired a yacht with a gun mounted to to the deck which she sat astride singing God save the King as she chased the Royal party to Plymouth. In a large amount of debt much of which was from her decision to back the debt of her brother-in-law ands plagued by her creditors, Mary was imprisoned at Fleet Prison where she met fellow prisoner Joseph Haim Sumbel, a Sephardic Jewish man from Morocco and for secretary to Ambassador of Morocco who was imprison for contempt of court. Seeking the security of marriage to wealthy man and after converting to Judasim and changing her name to Leah, Wells and Sumbel married in 1797. The marriage failed after a year and Sumbel later unsuccessfully tried to have the marriage annulled and ultimately left the country. Wells does not seem to have acted after 1790 and later lived in lodgings with her mother. She published her autobiography in 1811. Her surviving daughters lived with their father Edward Topham. John Raphael Smith (1751 - 1812) was an English painter, printmaker and publisher. After abandoning a career in linen drapery, Smith became one of the leading printmakers of the day. He excelled in mezzotint, and produced numerous plates after portraits by Gainsborough, Reynolds, and Romney. In addition to his reproductive work, he was also a highly successful publisher and seller of prints, and exported a large number of material to France. However, the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars in 1803 destroyed this market, and Smith announced his retirement from printmaking in order to produce pastel portraits of his own up until his death in 1812. Chaloner Smith 191, D'Oench 373, Frankau 196 i, Lennox-Boyd ii/iv Condition: Trimmed to the plate top and sides and within the plate on the bottom. Repaired tear into image on right. Two spots in inscription space. Old adhesive on verso and some patches of thinning to sheet. Overall time toning to sheet. |
| Framing | unmounted |
| Price | £300.00 |
| Stock ID | 52952 |