David Garrick David Garrick David Garrick (19 February 1717 – 20 January 1779) was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of theatrical practice throughout the 18th century, and was a pupil and friend of Dr Samuel Johnson. He appeared in a number of amateur theatricals, and with his appearance in the title role of Shakespeare's "Richard III", audiences and managers began to take notice. Impressed by his portrayals of Richard III and a number of other roles, Charles Fleetwood engaged Garrick for a season at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. He remained with the Drury
David Garrick Between Tragedy and Comedy Virtue, Garrick starts to succumb to the more immodestly dressed muse of Comedy. It also differs from traditional compositions of this scene, which generally feature detached full-length figures. David Garrick was famous as both a tragedian and comedian, and his earliest known association with the Muses of Tragedy and Comedy was in a 1747 poem by William Whitehead. In 1761, the same year Reynolds finished his painting of Garrick, a pamphlet with the signatures of the Muses of Comedy and Tragedy praised Garrick's theatrical achievements. The historian David Mannings has suggested that the painting's composition was inspired by Guido Reni's