Mrs. Gwyn & Mrs. Bunbury in the Characters of The Merry Wives of Windsor

William Dickinson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The double portrait represents the sisters Mary and Catherine Horneck, who moved to London from Devon after their father's death, and were welcomed into the social circle of Sir Joshua Reynolds. In 1771, the younger sister Catherine married Henry William Bunbury, the gentleman artist-caricaturist. In 1779, Mary married Colonel Francis Edward Gwyn, who have distinguished himself in the American Revolutionary War. The sisters appear here in character as Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Page from Shakespeare's "Merry Wives of Windsor." Since neither was a professional actress, the image either echoes a private theatrical, or simply conveys late eighteenth century delight in "fancy" (imaginative) dress.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art