Sarah Siddons as the Tragic Muse
Painting by Joshua Reynolds
Sarah Siddons as the Tragic Muse | |
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Artist | Joshua Reynolds |
Year | 1783–1784 |
Medium | oil on canvas |
Dimensions | 239.4 cm × 147.64 cm (94.25 in × 58.125 in)[1] |
Location | Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California |
Sarah Siddons as the Tragic Muse, or Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse, is a 1783–1784 painting by English painter Sir Joshua Reynolds. The 1784 version is in the Huntington Library art museum,[1] while a 1789 reproduction from Reynolds's studio is in the Dulwich Picture Gallery.[2]
Composition
The painting depicts the actress Sarah Siddons as Melpomene, the muse of tragedy. Siddons wears a diadem and is dressed in an 18th-century costume adorned with pearls. She is seated on a large throne while behind her, figures personifying Pity and Terror stand in the shadows.[3]
References
- ^ a b Huntington Library.
- ^ Dulwich Picture Gallery.
- ^ McPherson 2000, p. 411.
Sources
- Bennett, Shelley; Leonard, Mark; Khandekar, Narayan (1999). ""A Sublime and Masterly Performance": The Making of Sir Joshua Reynolds's Sarah Siddons as the Tragic Muse". In Asleson, Robyn (ed.). A Passion for Performance: Sarah Siddons and her Portraitists. J. Paul Getty Museum. ISBN 978-0-8923-6557-9.
- McPherson, Heather (2000). "Picturing Tragedy: Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse Revisited". Eighteenth-Century Studies. 33 (3). Johns Hopkins University Press: 401–430. JSTOR 30053950.
- "Mrs Siddons as the Tragic Muse". Dulwich Picture Gallery. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
- "Sarah (Kemble) Siddons as the Tragic Muse". Huntington Library. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
External links
- Sarah Siddons as the Tragic Muse on Google Arts & Culture
- v
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Joshua Reynolds
- Portrait of Robert Orme (1756)
- Portrait of Margaret Desenfans (1757)
- David Garrick Between Tragedy and Comedy (1761)
- Portrait of John Burgoyne (1766)
- Portrait of the Marquess of Rockingham (1768)
- Portrait of Elizabeth Kerr (1769)
- Colonel Acland and Lord Sydney: The Archers (1769–1770)
- Portrait of Joseph Banks (1773)
- Blinking Sam (c. 1775)
- Lady Cockburn and Her Three Eldest Sons (1775)
- Portrait of Omai (c. 1776)
- Lady Caroline Howard (1778)
- Lady Elizabeth Delmé and Her Children (1779)
- The Ladies Waldegrave (1780–1781)
- Thaïs (1781)
- Captain George K. H. Coussmaker (1782)
- Portrait of Banastre Tarleton (1782)
- Cupid Untying the Zone of Venus (1784)
- Sarah Siddons as the Tragic Muse (1784)
- The Age of Innocence (1785 or 1788)
- Portrait of Maria Fitzherbert (1788)
- Portrait of Lord Moira (1790)
- Mary Palmer (sister)
- Elizabeth Johnson (sister)
- Frances Reynolds (sister)
- Theophila Gwatkin (niece, model)
- Wick House
- Grand Style
- Society of Artists of Great Britain
- Royal Academy of Arts
- Memoirs of Sir Joshua Reynolds
- Cenotaph to the Memory of Sir Joshua Reynolds (1836 painting)
- The Club