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
Frederick Lincoln Siddons he had taken one year of law at Columbian University in D.C., during his final year at the Bureau. An old family friend kindly gave him financial support to complete the course and Siddons graduated LL.B. in 1887 and LL.M. in 1888. He also worked for the United States Department of the Treasury that year. Siddons was naturalized in Washington, D.C. on March 18, 1889. The following year he joined forces with Jackson H. Ralston (1857-1945), a former printer, to form the Washington law firm of Ralston and Siddons; the city directory shows that in 1896 they were based at