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G0108
Paintings: G0108
Title
Charlotte Chapman
Technique
Oil on canvas
Subject
Character
Augusta Aubrey : The Fashionable Lover
Artist
Dimensions
Height: 36.5cm
Width: 28cm
height (frame): 46cm
width (frame): 37cm
Width: 28cm
height (frame): 46cm
width (frame): 37cm
Provenance
John Bell; Charles Mathews
Other number
Mathews 88
RW/CKA 207
RW/CKA 207
Exhibition history
1833 London, Queen's Bazaar, Oxford Street, "Mr Mathews's Gallery of Theatrical Portraits" (88)
Engraving history
J. Thornthwaite for Bell's British Library 19 January 1793, line 11.7 x 8, pub. Bell's "British Theatre (1797), vol 18
The scene designated on the engraving (Act I, scene 3) is a misprint for Act III, scene 1. In the latter scene, "The Street, with a distant view of a square," Augusta wanders disconsolate with no roof over her head and hesitates outside the house of her lover Tyrrel. She meets Colin Macleod, a Scot in the service of Lord Abberville, and tells him of her troubles, "I have no Friend or Refuge in this World," the line given on the engraving. Augusta wears long white gloves, a white sprig muslin dress and underskirt with a white sash, a white shawl trimmed with lace and a lace-edged fichu. Her yellow straw hat is trimmed with white ribbons.
Cumberland's comedy was first performed at Drury Lane on 20 January 1772, with Ann Barry as the first Augusta Aubrey. Charlotte Chapman never played the role in London, but De Wilde probably chose to depict her in it because she was a fairly prominent actress at Covent Garden in the early 1790s.
Cumberland's comedy was first performed at Drury Lane on 20 January 1772, with Ann Barry as the first Augusta Aubrey. Charlotte Chapman never played the role in London, but De Wilde probably chose to depict her in it because she was a fairly prominent actress at Covent Garden in the early 1790s.
