Sir Thomas Lawrence (Bristol 1769-1830 London)
Portrait of Mrs Siddons as Zara
pastel, oval
29.9 x 24.6cm (11 3/4 x 9 11/16in).
Footnotes:
Provenance
Matthew Hutchinson
His sale, Christie's, London, 22 February 1861, lot 54
With Hogarth 1864 (when lent to the Shakespeare Tercentenary Exhibition)
Sir Henry Hawley, by whom given to
Isabel M.J. Morant Gale, and by descent to her daughter
Mrs George MacDonald, Wickham, Hampshire, 1964 and thence by descent through the family

Exhibited
Stratford upon Avon, Shakespeare Tercentenary Exhibition, 1864, cat. no. 3, lent by Hogarth
London, South Kensington Museum, Portrait Miniatures, 1865, no. 1465

Literature
K. Garlick, 'A catalogue of the paintings, drawings and pastels of Sir Thomas Lawrence', Walpole Society, 1964, no. 2, p. 265
M. Levey, Sir Thomas Lawrence, New Haven and London, 2005, p. 49
N. Jeffares, Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, 2006, p. 322
N. Jeffares, Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, online, no. J.466.324

Engraved
John Raphael Smith, 1782 and 1783


The present work, from the early 1780s, depicts Mrs Siddons as 'Zara' from William Congreve's The Mourning Bride, a role she only performed once in Bath in the season of January to May 1781. John Raphael Smith's mezzotint of the portrait was published in the Bath Chronicle in November 1782 and reworked and printed again in 1783.

Lawrence, who never married, is rumoured to have had an intimate friendship with Sarah Siddons (née Kemble, 1755-1831), who was the most famous actress of her age, and they remained close throughout their lives. It is said that he was also romantically linked to both her daughters, Sally and Maria.