82 Sir Joshua Reynolds, Mrs Siddons as the Tragic Muse, RA 1784

Image details

Description: Sarah (Kemble) Siddons as the Tragic Muse

TitleSarah (Kemble) Siddons as the Tragic Muse

Creator nameReynolds, Joshua

Creator nationality/cultureBritish (modern)

Creator rolePainter

Creation date1783–1784

Object typePainting

MaterialsOil on canvas

Dimensions239.4 × 147.6 cm

LocationHuntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California

http://emuseum.huntington.org/objects/245/sarah-kemble-siddons-as-the-tragic-muse

Accession number21.2

SubjectsPortraits, BritishActresses in artPainting, British--18th centuryWomen--Portraits

Related content: Chapters (3) Images (4)

Select a chapter below to view this image within the text.

12. Point Counterpoint

Mark Hallett

Reynolds: Portraiture in Action

~~Throughout the 1780s, the Great Room at Somerset House also became an arena in which Reynolds showcased a series of ambitious experiments in female portraiture. These included boldly coloured, tautly composed and slickly painted portraits of aristocratic women in modern dress: Lady Dorothy Worsley outfitted en militaire, her...

Author

Mark Hallett

PublisherPaul Mellon Centre

Related print edition pages: pp.383-423

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00296.13

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-22323&redirecttoanchor=38057

Chapter subject tags:Reynolds, Joshua, Sir, 1723–1792Portrait painting, British--18th centurySomerset House (London, England)Art, British--Exhibitions--18th centuryRoyal Academy of Arts (Great Britain)Aristocracy (Social class)--Great Britain--18th centuryClothing and dress--Great Britain--18th centuryWomen and gender--Britain--18th century

3. Sentimental Spaces

Angela Rosenthal

Angelica Kauffman: Art and Sensibility

ACCORDING TO HIS salon criticism of 1767, Denis Diderot had placed his portrait painted by Anna Dorothea Therbusch opposite the one that Louis-Michel Van Loo had done of him in the same year...

Author

Angela Rosenthal

PublisherPaul Mellon Centre

Related print edition pages: pp.77-121

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00255.004

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-21682&redirecttoanchor=38057

Chapter subject tags:Kauffmann, Angelica, 1741-1807Diderot, Denis, 1713-1784Vigée-Lebrun, Louise-Elisabeth, 1755-1842Reynolds, Joshua, Sir, 1723–1792Painting, British--18th centuryPortrait painting, British--18th centuryPortrait painting, Swiss--18th centuryGainsborough, Thomas, 1727-1788Women artists--Switzerland--18th century

8. The Spectacle of the Muse: Exhibiting the Actress at the Royal Academy

Gill Perry

Art on the Line: The Royal Academy Exhibitions at Somerset House 1780–1836

IN THE WINTER OF 1782/83 the actress Sarah Siddons marked her return to the Drury Lane Theatre by appearing eighty times in seven different parts. She opened in one of her most famous roles, as Isabella, the heroine of Garrick’s eponymous...

Author

Gill Perry

PublisherPaul Mellon Centre

Related print edition pages: pp.111-125

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00023.014

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-18341&redirecttoanchor=38057

Chapter subject tags:Portrait painting, British--18th centuryArt, British--Exhibitions--18th centuryRoyal Academy of Arts (Great Britain)Reynolds, Joshua, Sir, 1723–1792Actresses in art--England--18th centurySiddons, Sarah, 1755-1831Gainsborough, Thomas, 1727-1788Women and gender--Britain--18th centuryHoppner, John, 1758-1810

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