Home
/
G0685
Paintings: G0685
Title
Jane Pope
Technique
Oil on canvas
Subject
Character
Mrs Page : The Merry Wives of Windsor
Artist
Dimensions
Height (canvas): 89cm
width (canvas): 68.5cm
height (frame): 103cm
width (frame): 82 cm
width (canvas): 68.5cm
height (frame): 103cm
width (frame): 82 cm
Provenance
Charles Mathews
Other number
Mathews 59 (as Mrs Ford)
RW/CKA 406
RW/CKA 406
Exhibition history
1778 London, R. A. (429) "Ditto [portrait of a lady] in the character of Mrs Page in the Merry Wives of Windsor"
1833 London, Queen's Bazaar, Oxford Street, "Mr Mathews's Gallery of Theatrical Portraits" (59)
Mrs Page wears a costume of considerable richness and complexity. On her great pile of powdered hair is a dainty tricorn hat, edged in gold with a pink ribbon inside the brim. A large pink bow and pink ribbons hang over her left shoulder, grey feathers above. She waves two feathers, perhaps by way of a fan, as she directs her servants to tip Falstaff into Datchet Mead. She wears black shoes with pink rosettes, white stockings, and a panniered grey dress lined in red, the red hem edged in gold and the skirts pulled back with gold bows to reveal a rouched white silk underskirt with pink decoration around the hem. She has a double lace V-shaped ruff and a gauze apron trimmed in gold. The costume is a magnificent example of mid-Georgian historical fantasy.
Jane Pope acted Mrs Page for the first time in London at Drury Lane on 24 February 1778, and again on 25 and 28 February, 9 March, and 2 April during the 1777-78 season.
Jane Pope acted Mrs Page for the first time in London at Drury Lane on 24 February 1778, and again on 25 and 28 February, 9 March, and 2 April during the 1777-78 season.
