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
Sarah Egerton (actress) North" and Emmeline in John Hawkesworth's "Edgar and Emmeline". She probably married Daniel Egerton soon afterwards. He was playing leading business in Bath. Her first recorded appearance as Mrs. Egerton was at Birmingham in 1810. On 25 February 1811, as Mrs. Egerton from Birmingham, she played Juliet at Covent Garden without much success. Marcia in "Cato", Luciana in "Comedy of Errors", and Emilia in "Othello" followed during the same season. Sarah Egerton had stiff opposition in Sarah Siddons and subsequently Eliza O'Neill, and it was not until she took to melodrama that her position became assured. In "The Miller and