11. Francis Haward (1759-1799)
after Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792)

Mrs. Siddons in the Character of the Tragic Muse

(click on image to print)
Haward, Mrs. Siddons

Mrs. Siddons in the Character of the Tragic Muse

Stipple engraving, 1784-7, 637 x 454 mm., Hamilton p. 131 iii/iii, LeBlanc 12. Very fine impression in brown-black on laid paper with the full plate margins, the plate mark showing in places; repaired tears in the plate margins, creases across the text area and in the plate margins, the image untouched. A painting – and a print – in the Grand Style, using elements of antique sculpture (tragedy as both pity and terror), ornate dress and jewelry and a throne set on a billowing cloud. Haward’s contribution is a virtuoso performance of stipple engraving, a technique not usually applied with such heroic aims and means. Sarah Kemble Siddons (1755-1831) was the greatest tragic actress of her time, known especially for her portrayal of Shakespeare’s Lady MacBeth. Viewers of the time would have associated the image both with that role and with Melpomene, the muse of tragedy. The painting, now in the Huntington Art Gallery in San Marino, California, was, in its time, called “the greatest female portrait in the world.” Haward’s engraving does it justice.