Studio (?) of Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A. (Plympton, Devon 1723-1792 London)

The German-born singer Catherine Schindlerin was trained by Venanzio Rauzzini. Charles Burney, in his History of Music (ed. Heitz, 1958, iv, 881), gives her a mixed review, 'her figure was elegant and graceful on the stage, and she was a good actress...Her voice was a mere thread, for the weakness of which there was neither taste nor knowledge to compensate'.

Mannings lists two portraits of the sitter; a first painted for the Duke of Dorset in c. 1775, exhibited at the British Institute in 1817 and 1843, and now known only through a 1777 engraving by J.R. Smith (op. cit., no. 1578); and a second painted for Mrs Horton in c. 1775, also now untraced it was attributed to 'M W Peters' when it came up for auction at Christie's, New York, 25 March 1983, lot 61. While listed under copies of the Horton portrait, the present portrait portrait shows a freshness of handling and numerous pentimenti which may not be consistent with a copy.