Actors and actresses
James Quin
- James Quin
- Quinn, by Hogarth (1740)
© Tate Gallery, London, 2000
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David Garrick
- David Garrick
- David Garrick as Ranger, Mrs Pritchard as Clorinda in Benjamin Hoadly’s The Jealous Husband
(Francis Hayman, 1747, Courtesy of the Museum of London)
David Garrick (1717-1779) made his London début in1749 and acted and managed at Drury Lane Theatre for 35 years.
He introduced a naturalistic style of playing in contrast with the exaggerated gestures and declamation of the previous period.
A writer for The Gentleman’s Magazine said of him:
“I have an Actor in my Eye whose greatest Merit is, that he is none; whose Look, whose Voice, whose Action have nothing of the Player, but so much of the person he represents”
Garrick (a member of Brook’s club and a frequent guest of Dolly’s Chop House), who also played at the theatre in Bath, was a friend of painters and was frequently painted by famous artists.
- David Garrick
- by Hogarth, Garrick and his wife (1757), The Royal Collection © 2000 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
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- David Garrick
- by Gainsborough (c. 1770, National Portrait Gallery)
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- David Garrick
- by Reynolds Garrick and his wife (1773, National Portrait Gallery)
Sarah Siddons
- Sarah Siddons
- Kemble as Macbeth, Mrs Siddons as Lady Macbeth at Drury Lane
(by Thomas Beach, 1786, The Garrick Club / The ArtArchive)
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Mrs Siddons also played at the theatre in Bath
Dorothea Jordan
- Dorothea Jordan
- John Hoppner Mrs Jordan as Viola at Drury Lane
(1795, The Iveagh Bequest, Kenwood, English Heritage)
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- Dorothea Jordan
- John Hoppner Mrs Jordan as Viola at Drury Lane
(1795, The Iveagh Bequest, Kenwood, English Heritage)
[click on the picture to enlarge it]
