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
Mary Frances Scott-Siddons Mary Frances Scott-Siddons Mary Frances Scott-Siddons (1844 – 8 November 1896) was a British actor and dramatic reader. Her paternal great-grandmother was Sarah Siddons. After a struggle, Scott-Siddons secured an engagement and made her professional debut at Nottingham, in 1866. as Portia in "The Merchant of Venice". She was well received there and in Edinburgh, and in the following year, attained a great success as a Shakespearean reader in London, where in 1868 she played the part of Rosalind in "As You Like It" at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, and afterward appeared as Juliet, drawing immense audiences. Her beauty and