Thomas Beach, R.A.

Portrait of Mrs. Siddons in the character of Melancholy from Milton's 'Il Penseroso'

UK: Greenford Park Warehouse

拍品已结束竞投

July 7, 02:47 PM GMT

估价

6,000 - 8,000 GBP

拍品信息

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描述

The Property of a Gentleman

Thomas Beach, R.A.

Milton Abbas, Dorset 1738 - 1806 Dorchester

Portrait of Mrs. Siddons in the character of Melancholy from Milton's 'Il Penseroso'

oil on canvas, in a carved and gilt wood Kentian frame

unframed: 126.8 x 90.1 cm.; 49⅞ x 35½ in.

framed: 153 x 120.1 cm.; 60¼ x 47¼ in.

The Earl of Winchilsea;
Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 10 November 1993, lot 61, where acquired by the father of the present owner.

W.T. Whitley, Artists and their Friends in England 1700–1799, vol. II, London 1928, p. 367;
H. Finberg, 'Thomas Beach', in The Connoisseur, July 1918, p. 142;
E.S. Beach, Thomas Beach: A Dorset Portrait Painter, London 1934, p. 70, no. 259 or 260;
L. Asleson, S. Bennett, M. Leonard and S. West, A Passion for Performance: Sarah Siddons and her Portraitists, Los Angeles 1999, p. 50, reproduced fig. 5.

ENGRAVED
W. Dickinson, 1782.

London, Society of Artists, 1783, no. 24 or 25.

Sarah Siddons (1755–1831) was one of Britain's most famous actresses, and certainly the best-known tragedienne of the 18th century, whose reputation was made in the theatres of Bath and Bristol, where she played her most celebrated role, Lady Macbeth. This is where she met Thomas Beach, also from the West Country, who painted several portraits of the actress.

This portrait dates from 1782, the year Mrs Siddons left Bath and appeared at Drury Lane. Beach – who exhibited this work at the Society of Artists in 1783 along with fourteen other portraits – chose to present the sitter here as the personification of tragedy, the genre for which she was most celebrated. It is not a specific theatrical role, but the goddess Melancholy, from Milton's poem Il Penseroso of 1632, who invokes the virtues of a meditative life.