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Paintings: G1234
Title
Sarah Siddons in the character of Melancholy from Milton's 'Il Penseroso'
Artist
Date
1782
Dimensions
:
height: 126.8cm
width: 90.1cm
height: 153cm
width: 120.1cm
height: 126.8cm
width: 90.1cm
height: 153cm
width: 120.1cm
Other materials
oil on canvas
Provenance
Bought by the Works of Art Committee at Sotheby's Old Masters sale 7th July 2022
Previously in the property of a gentleman, whose father acquired the painting at an anonymous sale Sotheby's Sale, 10 November 1993, Lot 61.
Previous to this the painting belonged to the Earl Of Winchilsea.
Other number
E0128
This portrait dates to 1782, the year Mrs Siddons left Bath and appeared at Drury Lane to much acclaim. This painting by Thomas Beach depicts Mrs Siddons as the personification of the goddess Melancholy from Milton's poem 'Il Peseroso' of 1632, who invokes the virtues of a meditative life. Thomas Beach seems to have used the following lines from Milton's poem as inspiration:
" (...) Come pensive nun, devout and pure,
sober, stedfast, and demure,
All in a robe of darkest grain,
Flowing with majestic train,
And sable stole of cypress lawn,
Overy thy decent shoulders drawn,
Come, but keep thy wanted stage,
With ev'n step and muted gait,
And looks commencing with the skies,
Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes..."
" (...) Come pensive nun, devout and pure,
sober, stedfast, and demure,
All in a robe of darkest grain,
Flowing with majestic train,
And sable stole of cypress lawn,
Overy thy decent shoulders drawn,
Come, but keep thy wanted stage,
With ev'n step and muted gait,
And looks commencing with the skies,
Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes..."
