A PASSION FOR PERFORMANCE:
SARAH SIDDONS AND HER PORTRAITISTS
July 27 - September 19, 1999
J. Paul Getty Museum,
1200 Getty Center Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90049
Portraiture played a crucial role in launching the fame and securing the legend of Sarah Siddons (1755-1831), the renowned tragic actress who dominated British theater during the late Georgian era. In response to intense popular demand, the leading painters of her day vied for supremacy in capturing Siddons's elusive beauty and sublime presence. The actress's flair for self-presentation was matched by the showmanship of these artists, who sought to enhance their own reputations through compelling and inventive depictions of the famed tragedienne. Siddons's innovations on the stage were paralleled in the studio by the ingenious theories and techniques of her most important portraitist, Sir Joshua Reynolds. His aspirations meshed with Siddons's own during their collaboration on her portrait, Sarah Siddons as the Tragic Muse (Huntington Art Collections). Heralded as one of the greatest portraits of all time when exhibited in 1784, Reynolds's painting still ranks among the masterpieces of late-eighteenth-century art.
Recent analysis of Reynolds's painting has revealed the fascinating process through which the artist developed this iconic portrait of the most famous actress of his day. The Getty exhibition will unveil the results of this analysis, along with new scientific information relating to a second version of the painting (Dulwich Picture Gallery). The innovative display of x-rays and other technical material will dramatize the evolution of the paintings in Reynolds's studio, elucidating the enigmatic practices of Georgian Britain's most experimental painter and presenting a unique perspective on the making of a masterpiece.
The exhibition will re-unite the Huntington and Dulwich versions of Sarah Siddons as the Tragic Muse for the first time in over two hundred years. Along with these paintings, eight major portraits of Siddons by Reynolds's friends, rivals, and successors will document the great diversity of "roles" that she and her portraitists exploited. These range from the public fashion plate depicted by Thomas Gainsborough (on loan from the National Gallery, London) to the neo-classical goddess portrayed by George Romney (private collection, England); from Henry Fuseli's gothic wraith (Tate Gallery) to Gilbert Stuart's cerebral matron (National Portrait Gallery, London) and Thomas Lawrence's towering legend (Tate Gallery).
The exhibition illuminates dynamic alliances between the pictorial and performing arts in eighteenth-century Britain. Focusing on the mutually advantageous relationships that Sarah Siddons formed with prominent painters, it explores the use of visual imagery to reify the actress's personal and professional mystique. The dramatic metamorphoses that Siddons performed in artists' studios were matched by Emma Hamilton, Dorothy Jordan, and others whose dramatic abilities made them ideal muses. Siddons was unique, however, in retaining tight control over her image and reputation. Through shrewd manipulation of her own publicity, the actress warded off the notoriety that befell other female celebrities, enabling her to negotiate the hazards of fame with extraordinary success.
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For further information go to http://www.getty.edu/museum/exhibits/siddons.htm