Judith, I would be very interested to hear what you think of that viol (its origins, its style?) : And the close-ups: Could this be a Jaye or a Norman according to you?

Yet another portrait of Abel, by Jean Charles Robineau, who presumably met Abel in England. I have very little information about this painter (next to none, in fact) - has anyone got a very comprehensive 18th century art encyclopaedia? Robineau hasn't...

The Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Chronicle (vol. LIV, 1784), mentionned earlier, reports on Molly Leapor, an early feminist poet... "Molly Leapor [...] was born at Marston St. Laurence, Northamptonshire, in 1722, and died of the meazles [sic] at...

I found a short reference to Abel's painting by Gainsborough while reading the painter's obituary (02/08/1788) in a selection of articles from the Gentleman's Magazine - other posts will follow on that subject, since the GM is one major source of informations...