Sarah Siddons as the Tragic Muse

Painting by Joshua Reynolds

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

1. Huntington Library.
2. Dulwich Picture Gallery.
3. 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