The Huntington Art Collections and the J. Paul Getty Museum present concurrent exhibitions celebrating the life of Sarah Siddons (1755-1831). Once one of the most famous women in Britain, Sarah Siddons achieved stardom through her remarkable dramatic powers and reached legendary status by making savvy use of art to shape her personal and professional reputation. Since 1921, when Henry E. Huntington purchased the portrait of Sarah Siddons as the Tragic Muse from the Duke of Westminster, Siddons has shared the spotlight with the other leading ladies of the Huntington Art Collection. This summer, she returns to center stage in a medley of events commemorating her exceptional role in British art. Sir Joshua Reynolds’s painting was heralded as one of the greatest portraits of all time when first exhibited in 1784. Find out information on the exhibition, A Passion for Performance: Sarah Siddons and Her Portraitists, at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California, July 27 - September 19, 1999.
Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sarah Siddons as the Tragic Muse, 1784 (Huntington Library Art Collection) on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum, July 27 - September 19, 1999

		Siddons's tremendous fame made her the object of adoration and ridicule alike. Caricaturists dubbed her "Queen Rant" and poked fun at her reputation as an inspired genius with portrayals of hysterical, formulaic acting.
		Find out information on the exhibition, Cultivating Celebrity: Portraiture as Publicity in the Career of Sarah Siddons, at The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California, July 27 - September 19, 1999.
		Thomas Rowlandson, Mrs. Siddons, old Kemble, and Henderson, Rehearsing in the Green Room, 1789 (Huntington Library Art Collection) on view at The Huntington

	Rival artists struggled in vain to surpass Reynolds’s majestic portrait of Siddons. In Beechey’s more earth-bound portrait, Siddons holds a bloody dagger and a tragic mask.
	Find out information on The Affliction of Glory: A Comedy about Tragedy, an original play, commissioned by the J. Paul Getty Museum in association with the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum, to be performed at the J. Paul Getty Museum, August 19 - September 5, 1999.
	William Beechey, Sarah Siddons with the Emblems of Tragedy, 1793. (National Portrait Gallery, London) on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum

		Through grandiose depictions of Siddons, artists reinforced the popular notion that she was more than a mere actress, but the divinely inspired Muse of Tragedy.
		Find out information on A Passion for Performance: Sarah Siddons and her Portraitists (The Book), published to accompany the exhibitions.
		Richard Cosway, Sarah Siddons as Tragedy, c. 1785 (Private Collection, England) on view at The Huntington

	The 18th-century theater was often the site of gossip, flirtation, and fisticuffs. Siddons was one of the few performers capable of holding audiences spellbound, but even she had to contend with the occasional riot.
	Find out information on the scholarly conference, Performing Arts: Alliances of Studio and Stage in Britain, 1776-1812, at The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California September 10-11, 1999.
	Edward Dayes, Drury Lane Theatre, 1795 (Huntington Library Art Collection) on view at The Huntington

		The 1952 film "All about Eve" inspired the founding of the Sarah Siddons Society, which annually presents outstanding actresses with an award statuette of Siddons as the Tragic Muse. Seven years after the release of the film, Bette Davis posed as Sarah Siddons in a re-creation of the painting staged by the Laguna Pageant of the Masters.
		Find out more about The Legend of Sarah Siddons: All About Eve and the Sarah Siddons Society.
		(Photograph courtesy of the Festival of Arts of Laguna Beach) on view at The Huntington

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