Treading the Georgian Boards
Annals of Eighteenth-century Performers – their Dress and Costume
Actresses, Actors, Dancers, Singers
The research highlighted here concentrates on the self-presentation of women, particularly female performers, and what we can learn of their motivations through an examination of their portraits, both paintings and prints.
This web site provides a repository of images of eighteenth-century performers, forming the basis for the creation of a database. Portraits are a key factor in this research. They are used to examine the motivations of the sitters as much as the artists who created them. They provide clues as to the way women constructed the presentation of their bodies through dress, to achieve a balance between personal preference and the expectations of society. Performers placed themselves in public view, thus loading their self-presentation with greater meaning and inviting comment from all sides.
Covent Garden Theatre (detail) 1792 by Thomas Rowlandson, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. Link to picture
Gallery of Portraits
Portraits are a key factor in this research. They are used to examine the motivations of the sitters as much as the artists who created them. The setting up of the royal Academy summer exhibition in 1764 stimulated a growing popularity for viewing portraits. For aristocrats, portraits had always been an important part of maintaining family status. Displayed at the family home alongside their ancestors, they gave veritas to the current head of the family.
However, it was not only the nobility who were popular at the public exhibition. The growing interest in performers and other public figures brought their images to the gallery walls alongside members of the establishment.
Most of the portraits displayed in the Picture Gallery on this website are performers. They have been chosen because viewing their portrait gives us further insights into their dress and costume, both on and off the stage. To Gallery
Detail of a scene from School for Scandal being performed in Drury Lane Theatre, London 1778. © Trustees of the British Museum
Posts
For some of these performers there are stories and anecdotes that bring a deeper understanding of their lives and motivations and where this is the case a posts will be written to highlight and extend the narrative begun by the portrait. To Posts