James Northcote, R.A.

Famous for his impassioned performances, Talma was one of the leading French actors of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, and an early exponent of realism in theatre, both in scenery and costume. Born in Paris, the son of a dentist, he was brought to London by his father when a boy for his education. Returning to Paris, in 1787 he made his stage debut at the Comédie-Française as Seide in Voltaire’s Mahomet and was hailed early on for his talents.

A friend of the painter Jacques-Louis David, who assisted him in stage setting, he was noted for his admirably proportioned figure, striking countenance and the great beauty and power of his voice. An intimate acquaintance of the Girondists, Talma became a close friend of the Emperor Napoleon, who delighted in his society and in 1808 took him to Erfurt to play the Mort de César to a company of crowned heads of state. Five years later Napoleon also took him to Dresden, though it was at the Théâtre de la République, which Talma himself established, that he won his greatest triumphs.

In 1777, following a five-year apprenticeship in the studio of Sir Joshua Reynolds (who was close friends with and painted a number of portraits of the celebrated English actor David Garrick), James Northcote travelled to Paris, Rome and Germany on a prolonged Grand Tour. In Rome he was elected to the Accademia dei Forti and it must have been during this period, whilst in Paris, that he painted this striking portrait of the great French actor, François-Joseph Talma.