Miniature

This miniature is of the great actress Sarah Siddons (1755-1831) who, with her brother Stephen Kemble, dominated the English stage of the late eighteenth and early twentieth centuries. Sarah Siddons was the youngest of the actor Roger Kemble's twelve children and spent her formative years with the family theatre company, travelling up and down the country. The family's first appearance at Drury Lane Theatre in the 1775 to 1776 season was not a success but when she appeared there again as Isabella in The Fatal Marriage, she was celebrated as the perfect noble tragic heroine, creating a legend that lasted until her retirement in 1812.