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G0076
Drawings: G0076
Title
Maria Bland
Technique
Watercolour
Subject
Character
Sally Shamrock : The Shipwreck
Artist
Date
1805
Dimensions
Height: 37cm
Width: 23.5cm
Width: 23.5cm
Other materials
Pencil and watercolour on wove paper
Inscription/signature
"S De Wilde f / Nr 14 1805" (black chalk b. l.)
Provenance
Charles Mathews
Other number
Mathews 235
RW/CKA 69C
RW/CKA 69C
Exhibition history
1833 London, Queen's Bazaar, Oxford Street, "Mr Mathews's Gallery of Theatrical Portraits" (235)
Engraving history
Richard Cooper for Cawthorn's "Minor British Theatre" pub John Cawthorn 31 January 1807, stipple 12x7.6 (with landscape background)
The scene is Act I, scene 4, with a view of the beach. Sally Shamrock, "an Irish Girl, with a basket of various articles on her Arm," enters and talks about the previous night's shipwreck. She thinks her lover is drowned but determines to marry "as soon as I can get any body to have me." According to Oxberry's 1820 edition of the play Sally's costume should consist of a "Coloured open gown, stiff petticoat, apron and straw hat." In the drawing (which has plain grey background) she has a dress of blue and white check, with a long white apron, and a straw bonnet with a blue ribbon.
Arnold's comic opera, with music by his father Dr Samuel Arnold, was first performed at Drury Lane on 10 December 1796, with Mrs Bland as Sally Shamrock. The first performance at the Haymarket, on 23 August 1798, was given as part of Mrs Bland's benefit, when she added extra variety to the evening by singing "There stood Jones."
Arnold's comic opera, with music by his father Dr Samuel Arnold, was first performed at Drury Lane on 10 December 1796, with Mrs Bland as Sally Shamrock. The first performance at the Haymarket, on 23 August 1798, was given as part of Mrs Bland's benefit, when she added extra variety to the evening by singing "There stood Jones."
