Sarah Siddons of feminine propriety. Commissioned and completed in 1784, Sir Joshua Reynolds' portrait, "Sarah Siddons as The Tragic Muse", is characterized by Reynolds' inspiration, contextualisation of the Muse, and distinctive brush work and paint palette. This portrait, as Heather McPherson writes, became the known depiction of tragedy, infused with contemporary ideas about acting and representation of the passions in Siddons' melancholy expression and deportment. Mary Hamilton's correspondence with her fiancé illuminated its seamless transition from "the artist's studio to the theatrical stage", practical venues that interlocked in the eighteenth century and formed a large part in creating the very idea of
Harriet Siddons Drury Lane company, together with her second husband Henry Siddons. She left it with him in 1809. At Drury Lane on 24 September 1805 she was Juliet to Robert William Elliston's Romeo. After moving to Edinburgh, Siddons devoted herself to helping her husband in his managerial work. In 1814 the Drury Lane management made her a tempting offer to play leading female parts to Edmund Kean, but she declined. When Siddons died the affairs of the Edinburgh Theatre were in a bad state, but, with her brother William Henry Murray, she continued to steer clear of all difficulties, and eventually