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G0414
Paintings: G0414
Title
Jenny Lee
Technique
Oil on canvas
Subject
Character
Jo : Jo
Artist
Dimensions
Height: 151.1cm
Width: 104.1cm
Width: 104.1cm
Provenance
Presented by Henry Macbeth-Raeburn (the artist), 1887
Other number
RW/CKA 99
Gift 207
Gift 207
Exhibition history
1886 London, R. A. (1010) "Miss Jenny Lee as jo" with the quotation "He wos very good to me, he wos"
Jo, Dickens's tragic juvenile road-sweeper, is dressed in shabby brown trousers and torn purple shirt. He sits with his brush and broom in front of a grill.
Burnett's adaptation from Dickens's “Bleak House” was first performed in England at the Prince of Wales Theatre, Liverpool, on 8 November 1875. However, Jenny Lee first appeared in the play earlier in the year, at the California Theatre, San Francisco. After her return to London she played at the Surrey Theatre and then leased the Globe Theatre where, on 22 February 1876, she opened in “Jo”. Jo became her most celebrated role, and, according to the “Athenaeum” of 26 February 1876, she played the part "with a realism and a pathos difficult to surpass. A more striking revelation of talent has seldom been made. In get-up and in acting the character was thoroughly realised; and the hoarse voice, the slouching, dejected gait, and the movement as of some hunted animal, were admirably exhibited." J. P. Burnett, the adaptor, was Jenny Lee's husband.
Burnett's adaptation from Dickens's “Bleak House” was first performed in England at the Prince of Wales Theatre, Liverpool, on 8 November 1875. However, Jenny Lee first appeared in the play earlier in the year, at the California Theatre, San Francisco. After her return to London she played at the Surrey Theatre and then leased the Globe Theatre where, on 22 February 1876, she opened in “Jo”. Jo became her most celebrated role, and, according to the “Athenaeum” of 26 February 1876, she played the part "with a realism and a pathos difficult to surpass. A more striking revelation of talent has seldom been made. In get-up and in acting the character was thoroughly realised; and the hoarse voice, the slouching, dejected gait, and the movement as of some hunted animal, were admirably exhibited." J. P. Burnett, the adaptor, was Jenny Lee's husband.
