Robert Laurie after William Dighton.

Mrs. Mattocks.

4.5 x 6 inches

This saucy little droll has been artfully executed to entice the viewer. Mrs. Mattocks protrudes from an oval frame within a rectangular setting and her ample bosoms are barely contained within the fabric of her dress. This is, without doubt, a print designed to titillate!

Isabella Mattocks (1746-1826) was an actress and singer who was successful upon the London stage almost without interruption throughout the latter half of the C18th. She joined a troupe called The Covent Garden Company of Actors and was rarely out of work. Her legions of fans would have enjoyed buying a print such as this as a memento of their evening at the theatre. The mandolin, theatrical mask and sheet music beneath her portrait illude to her profession and it is a testament to her notoriety that she was deemed worthy of a mezzotint by Messers Laurie and Dighton.