This oil-sketch was acquired for George IV at the studio sale in 1797 of Gainsborough's nephew and assistant, Gainsborough Dupont (the similarly unfinished nos 405077 and 405949 were in the same sale). This is a working study for a full-length portrait, commissioned by George IV in 1781, briefly in the collection of the sitter, also acquired by George IV in 1785, then given to the 2nd Marquess of Hartford in 1818 and now in the Wallace Collection.

Mary Robinson (née Darby) was an actress who made her name playing Perdita in Shakespeare's Winter's Tale; she became the mistress of the Prince of Wales and was rapidly rejected (in 1781 the date of this portrait). The similarity between this fate and that of Shakespeare's heroine (a lost princess become humble cottager in love with a disguised Prince) lead to her acquiring the name 'Perdita' Robinson. Gainsborough depicts her in the same vein as a wistful country sprite blending with the trees and clutching a miniature portrait of her Prince, seconded by a faithful dog.