New Exhibition: The First Actresses

Words cannot express how excited I am about an exhibition opening at London's National Portrait Gallery tomorrow.  The First Actresses is a celebration of the fascinating women (many written about on this blog) who took London by storm, when they ascended to the stage, a short while after it was even allowed for women to do so. According to the NPG's website,

"The First Actresses presents a vivid spectacle of femininity, fashion and theatricality in seventeenth and eighteenth-century Britain.

Taking centre stage are the intriguing and notorious female performers of the period whose lives outside of the theatre ranged from royal mistresses to admired writers and businesswomen. The exhibition reveals the many ways in which these early celebrities used portraiture to enhance their reputations, deflect scandal and create their professional identities."

The exhibition is not only monumental for the oeuvre but has acquired some amazing pieces that have been hidden away in private collections.  An erotically-charged portrait of a topless Nell Gwyn, the self-proclaimed "Protestant Whore," has been restored to its original state of toplessness.  Also on public display for the first time is the NPG's new acquisition, The Three Witches from Macbeth, which is quite special because now the museum finally has a adult depiction of Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire in its collection.

The First Actresses opens tomorrow but I personally will have to patiently bide my time to see the exhibition since I am planning on attending its corresponding conference on 11 November.  Juicy details to follow!  Who else is planning on going?

Amanda Vickery's Review
Laura Barnett's Review

Coming Exhibitions: The First Actresses

I nearly jumped out of my seat in excitement when I read this announcement from the Nation Portrait Gallery today:

The First Actresses: Nell Gwyn to Sarah Siddons
20 October 2011 - 8 January 2012

Wolfson Gallery
Tickets £11/£10/£9

The First Actresses will explore the vibrant and sometimes controversial relationship between art, gender and the theatre in eighteenth-century England. Combining much-loved masterpieces with newly-discovered works, the exhibition will look at the ways in which actresses used portraiture to enhance their reputations, deflect scandal and increase their popularity and professional status.

The exhibition features portraits by artists such as Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, John Hoppner and James Gillray, with highlights including Reynolds’s famous portrait of Sarah Siddons as the Tragic Muse, Hogarth’s The Beggar’s Opera and Gainsborough’s portrait of Elizabeth Linley. Visitors will discover the fascinating stories of actresses including Nell Gwyn, Kitty Clive, Hester Booth, Lavinia Fenton, Sarah Siddons and Dorothy Jordan.

Starting with the emergence of the actress’s profession in the late seventeenth century, The First Actresses will show how women performers were key figures in celebrity culture. Fuelled by gossipy theatre and art reviews, satirical prints and the growing taste for biography, eighteenth-century society engaged in heated debate about the moral and sexual decorum of women on stage and revelled in the traditional association between actress and prostitute. The exhibition will also look at the resonances with modern celebrity culture and the enduring notion of the actress as fashion icon.

This sounds like an exhibition not to be missed since no museum has ever housed so many tarts at once!  I have never had the pleasure of seeing my favorite portrait of Perdita Robinson (by Hoppner) and it appears it will be one of the highlights of the collection.  Time to begin counting down the days until October.

Tart of the Week: Lavinia Fenton

Sometimes the best tarts are the products of tarts themselves. Lavinia Fenton was the result of her mother's late night rendezvous with a sailor. Things were rough growing up in Charing Cross in the early 1700s. Lavinia, like so many young women, turned to prostitution as a child. From there she took the usual prostitute promotion and became an actress.

Her first recorded appearances on the stage happened while she was still a teenager. It was when Lavinia joined the production at Lincoln's Inn Fields that she became noticed. Of course this could just be because she was a pretty face. Either way, people flocked to see the divine Miss Fenton on stage. One of those people was Charles, Duke of Bolton.

The Duke was in a loveless marriage and much older than Lavinia but that wouldn't stop the two from shacking up. Nor would Lavinia let shacking up get in the way of her career. It was her performance as Polly Peachum in The Beggar's Opera that earned Lavinia the most success. It also earned her a depiction in a Hogarth painting portraying the play. Now Lavinia was a full-out star: the papers followed her, prints were made of her, and she became the reason people would see the play.

After her initial success as Polly Peachum, there was a demand for Lavinia to play the character in just about any production of The Beggar's Opera. In the meantime she had three sons, all with the Duke. It wasn't until the death of his wife in 1751 that the Duke made an honest woman out of Lavinia. Nine years later, Lavinia died, having lived her celebrity life with a happier ending than its beginning.