Art Collections Online
Mrs Newbery
ROMNEY, George (1734 - 1802)
Date: 1782-84
Media: oil on canvas
Size: 76.2 x 63.3 cm
Acquired: 1963; Bequest; Margaret Davies
Accession Number: NMW A 523
Collection: The Davies Sisters Collection
Mrs. Newbery, the sister of Robert Raikes, the promoter of Sunday Schools, was the wife of Francis Newbery (1743-1811) of Heathfield Park, Sussex, a publisher and seller of patent medicines. Mrs. Newbery sat in 1782 and 1784 for this portrait, for which Romney charged £21, less than the fees of his rivals Reynolds and Gainsborough. The broad treatment of the fashionable brushed hair and the muslin is typical.