Sarah Siddons as the Tragic Muse them look like actual sculptures in the fashion they were usually depicted in the classical style. Sarah Siddons as the Tragic Muse Sarah Siddons as the Tragic Muse is a 1784 oil painting by Joshua Reynolds. Mrs. Sarah Siddons: Sarah Siddons was a well-known actress of the 18th century who became famous for her role as Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth. Born Sarah Kemble, aged 18 she married William Siddons, also an actor, and they had seven children of who only two survived. Sarah's parents sent her to work as a lady's maid and with this job she was exposed to the
George Henry Harlow career Harlow had made sketches of performers in the theatre, notably of the actress Sarah Siddons, who retired in 1812. Later he reworked some of these drawings into paintings such as one showing Siddons in the sleepwalking scene from Macbeth, shown at the British Institution in 1815, and another showing the letter scene from the same play. A commission from the music teacher Thomas Welsh to paint Siddons as Queen Katharine in Shakespeare's "Henry VIII". This was begun from memory, but subsequently the actress, at Welsh's request, gave the painter a sitting. While painting the portrait, Harlow decided to expand