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 musical voice of great flexibility of expression. In scenes, she made little attempt to differentiate characters by vocal changes; she gestured little. Mary Frances Siddons was born in Bengal, India in 1844. Her father was Capt. William Young Siddons, of the 65th Bengal Light Infantry. Her mother, Susan Mary Earle, was a daughter of Col. Earle, of the British army. Her paternal great-grandmother was Sarah Siddons. Upon the death of her father, her mother returned to England with her children, settling in Somersetshire, from whence she proceeded to Germany, her two daughters being educated in Bonn. It was here that