Sarah Siddons as the Tragic Muse 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 works of England's literary greats such as Milton and Shakespeare. She also began acting and had
George Francis Joseph a constant exhibitor both there and at the British Institution. In 1797 he painted "Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse". In 1811 the British Institution awarded him a premiums for his "Return of Priam with the dead body of Hector", and again in 1812 for his "Procession to Calvary". Joseph painted "fancy" subjects, and made designs for book illustrations, but is best known as a portrait-painter. His portraits both in oil and miniature are numerous, and some of them have been engraved. His portraits of Spencer Perceval, painted in 1812, and Sir Stamford Raffles (1817) went to the National Portrait