Sarah Siddons (née Kemble)

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Sarah Siddons (née Kemble)

by John Downman
chalk, 1787
8 in. x 6 3/4 in. (203 mm x 171 mm) oval
Given by Mrs D.E. Knollys, 1934
Primary Collection
NPG 2651

Sitterback to top

Artistback to top

  • John Downman (1750-1824), Artist. Artist or producer associated with 33 portraits.

This portraitback to top

John Downman studied under Benjamin West and exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1770 and 1802. This depiction of Sarah Siddons is one of twenty portraits of 'beauties' commissioned by the 3rd Duke of Richmond. The subject, who was painted in theatrical guises by all of the leading artists of her day including Gainsborough and Reynolds, is pictured here in ordinary, fashionable dress.

Related worksback to top

  • NPG 2652: Elizabeth (née Farren), Countess of Derby (companion portrait)

Linked publicationsback to top

Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top

Subjects & Themesback to top

Events of 1787back to top

Current affairs

Social reformers Granville Sharp and Thomas Clarkson found the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade in London with support from John Wesley, Josiah Wedgwood and others.
George III shows first signs of mental instability in November.

Art and science

Painter Robert Barker takes out a patent on the Panorama..
Astronomer William Herschel discovers the two moons of Uranus, Titania and Oberon.
The original Lord's Cricket Ground holds its first cricket match.

International

Captain William Bligh sets sail for Tahiti on The Bounty.
First performance of composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Don Giovanni at the National Theatre, Prague.
A British ship lands a party of freed slaves as the first modern settlers in Sierra Leone.
Captain Arthur Phillip leaves Portsmouth with eleven ships full of convicts to establish a penal colony in Australia.
Bahamas become a British colony.

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