Newsletter: Winter 1993

The subjectof Siddonian Recollections by George Romney is Sarah Kemble Siddons, the most distinguished member of the famous Kemble family of actors and the most famous dramatic actress of her day on the English stage. The well-known portrait of Mrs. Siddons, by Joshua Reynolds (Dulwich College Picture Gallery, England), shows her as the tragic muse seated on a throne in a composition and attitude inspired by those of the Sibyls in Michelangelo's ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The Princeton painting by Romney is very different in spirit. It is an oil sketch of three different expressive attitudes of the actress, rather than a finished composition. Mrs. Siddons was known for her tragic roles, particularly Desdemona, Ophelia, and Lady Macbeth. While this painting has been said variously to depict the famous actress as the tragic muse, or as Medea, it is more likely that Romney depicted her in the character of Lady Macbeth, the role for which she was best known. Her three expressions - terror, fear, and death, descending from right to left - would also seem to fit that character. In the 1968 exhibition catalogue, Romantic Art in Britain: Paintings and Drawings, 1760 - 1860 (the Detroit Institute of Arts), Frederick Cummings noted: "Normally such studies [of expression] . . . were translated into oil only in connection with a subject painting. Thus, they are rarely seen except in engravings or drawings, and these are usually by students. In this case, the power of the actress in the highest order of drama forms the basis for a study of the leading emotions of Lady Macbeth. It is a study that penetrates to the focal point of her character and so rises to the level of a subject painting. No doubt, it also reflects the intense degree of expression considered desirable in the acting of this period." The painting has been included in major exhibitions of neoclassical art because it was thought that the characterizations of Mrs. Siddons, particularly that of the expression of terror, depended on Classical tragic masks. According to Romney's diaries, Mrs. Siddons began sittings for a full-length portrait in 1783. Al though the present work has been dated to that year, Mrs. Siddons first appeared as Lady Macbeth in 1785. Since it was only after that performance that she achieved her true fame as a tragic actress, it should be assumed that this vibrant sketch was produced in 1785 or shortly thereafter.