THE THEATRICAL PORTRAIT IN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY LONDON (VOL. I) Shearer West A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of St. Andrews 1986 Full metadata for this item is available in Research@StAndrews:FullText at: http://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/ Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10023/2982 This item is protected by original copyright THE THEATRICAL PORTRAIT IN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY LONDON Ph.D. Thesis St. Andrews University Shearer West VOLUME 1 TEXT In submitting this thesis to the University of St. Andrews I understand that I am giving permission for it to be made available for use in accordance with the regulations of the University Library for the time being in force, subject to any copyright vested in the work not being affected thereby. I also understand that the title and abstract will be published, and that a copy of the I work may be made and supplied to any bona fide library or research worker. ABSTRACT A theatrical portrait is an image of an actor or actors in character. This genre was widespread in eighteenth century London and was practised by a large number of painters and engravers of all levels of ability. The sources of the genre lay in a number of diverse styles of art, including the court portraits of Lely and Kneller and the fetes galantes of Watteau and Mercier. Three types of media for theatrical portraits were particularly prevalent in London, between ca745 and 1800 : painting, print and book illustration. All three offered some form of publicity to the actor, and allowed patrons and buyers to recollect a memorable - per- formance of a play. Several factors governed the artist's choice of actor, character and play. Popular or unusual productions of plays were nearly always accompanied by some form of actor portrait, although there are eight- eenth century portraits which do not appear to reflect any particular performance at all. Details of costume in these works usually reflec- ted fashions of the contemporary stage, although some artists occasion- ally invented costumes to suit their own ends. Gesture and expression of the actors in theatrical portraits also tended to follow stage con- vention, and some definite parallels between gestures of actors in theatrical portraits and contemporary descriptions of those actors can be made. Theatrical portraiture on the eighteenth century model continued into the nineteenth century, but its form changed with the changing styles of acting. However the art continued to be largely commercial and ephemeral, and in its very ephemerality lies its importance as a part of the social history of the eighteenth century. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to thank the staffs of the following institutions which were indispensable to my research from the beginning : the Garriok Club, the British Library, the British Museum Department of Prints and Drawings, the Victoria and Albert Library, the Victoria and Albert Museum Department of Prints and Drawings, the Witt Library, the National Library of Scotland and the St. Andrews University Library, Department of Rare Books. I also thank the University of St. Andrews for providing me with the funds to pursue this research. For academic assistance throughout the last few years, I am grateful to Professor Martin Kemp and Mr. Robin Spencer, my super- - visors, who were always willing to read and comment upon my wrlting, no matter how inconvenient it was for them. I would also like to thank Dr. Geoffrey Ashton, Professor Michael Kitson, Professor Nigel Glendenning and Dr. James Lawson for helpful suggestions at various stages of my research regarding my focus and direction. Special thanks are due to Mr. Geoffrey Hargreaves, Mr. Peter Adamson, Mrs. Christine_ Heeley and Mrs. Dawn Waddell, who went well beyond the call of duty to assist me with technical matters with which I could never have coped alone. Personal thanks are due to my parents for their confidence in me and Mr. John Moore for teaching me how to be organised. Finally, I owe a great debt of gratitude to Admiral Sir John and Lady Fieldhouse and especially Sarah Fieldhouse and Sue Lewis, whose con- tinued hospitality and moral support on my frequent visits to London made completion of my research possible. TO ROBIN For all help, both professional and personal o =TENTS VOLUME 1 : TEXT Page Number INTROLUCT ION 00 PART I : SCURCES CHAPTER 1 : SOURCES AND PROTOTYPES OF THEATRICAL PORTRAITURE 8 Popular and Polite Art of the Seventeenth Century : The Broadsheet and. the Court Portrait .. 9 The French Fate Galante and the English Conversation Piece •• 15 Hogarth : Theory and Practice .. •• 21 Other Prototypes and Early Theatrical Portraits •• 26 Conclusion •• •• •. •• •• •• •• •• •• •• 31 • PART II : MEDIA CHAPTER 2 : PAINTING.• • . .. .. .. .. .. .. 32 From RDSCiUS to Royalty : The Patronage of the Theatrical Portrait .. •• •• •• •• •• 33 The Theatrical Conversation Piece .. •• •• •• •• •• 41 Half-History •• •• •• •• •• 46 The Commercial Theatrical Portrait .. •• •• •• •• •• 58 CHAPTER 3 THE THEATRICAL PRINT INUJblitY • •• 0• •• 69 The Print Industry as Commercial Enterprise .. 0O 06 00 70 Locations of Print Shops .. .. .. .. .. 06 60 00 76 Early Theatrical Mezzotints .. .. 041 66 00 O0 06 78 McArdell, Wilson, Zoffany and Sayer .. .. .. .. 00 82 Later Mezzotints : Reynolds and the Rise of the Reproductive _ Print •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• 86 Bell, Boydell and the Advent of Stipple Engraving .. .. .. 89 Etching and Line Engraving .. .. .. .. •• 08 $6 95 CHAPTER 4.: BOOK TTJUSTRATION •• •• 66 041 •• DO 100 From the Scenic Illustration to the Actor Portrait : The Early History of Play Illustration in Eighteenth Century London 102 Bell's First and. Second Editions of Shakespeare's Plays SO 110 Bell's First British Theatre and the Rival Publications 118 The Quality of Print and Choice of Scene : A Stylistic Compari- son Between Portrait Frontispieces for Bell and His Rivals 131 Bell's Second British Theatre and the Problems with Cawthorne 143 Page Number PART III : STAGE AND DUCE CHAPTER 5 : FACTORS GOVERNING REPRESENTATION .. • . • . 153. Painting .. •• 152 Popular Prints : Contemporary Images and What the Public Saw 157 Book Illustration : Nostalgia and Imagination 00 00 169 CHAPTER 6 : COSTUME AND SET . • 00 00 00 00 GO 00 175 Contemporary Dress and. the Beginning of Historical Accuracy .. 177 Foreign, Ancient and. Historical Costumes 00 00 00 181 Distinctive Costumes for Distinctive Characters .. 186 Reynolds, the Empire Dress, and the Further Reformation of St age Costume .. do. O. 00 GO 00 00 00 00 192 Set 4.0 00 00 00 .0 .0 00 00 0. 00 0,0 00 197 CHAPTER 7 : GESTURE AND EXPRESSION •. •0 •0 00 • • • 2014. The Posed Actor • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 207 The New Naturalism and Distinctions Between Tragedy and. Comedy 211 The Expression of the Passions : LeBrun and the Art of Tragic I - Acting • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 217 Tragic Attitudes _and. Theatrical Portraiture .. .. .. O. 227 Stage Comedy and. the Fallacy of Infinite Character O. 00 238 CONCLUSION : THE LEGACY OF THE THEATRICAL PORTRAIT 254. NOTES n• • • • • • • •• • • • •• 00 •0 269 •* APPENDIX •• • • •• • • • •• 00 SS •• 55 318 .. • BIBLIOGRAPHY ,,. 00 • • 00 O. 00 OS 00 0 0 332 VOLUME 2 : CATALOGUE OF LONDON THEATRICAL PORTRAITS 1700-1800 VOLUME 3 : ThrIJSTRATIONS INTRODUCTION 1 INTRODUCTION In the broadest sense, a theatrical portrait can be defined as a 1 painting or engraving of an actor or actors either in character or in every day dress. However, this thesis will deal only with the former category of theatrical portrait, that is a portrait of an 'actor or actors dressed for, or performing, roles, or presented in a way that makes direct reference to their profession. This defini- tion encompasses everything from paintings of actors which are repre- sentative of specific theatrical performances to portraits which are more fanciful and imaginative or are related in only a rudimentary fashion to the realities of stage performance. This form of portraiture was particularly predominant in London from the 1740s and became so widespread that by the end of the eighteenth century, hundreds of engravings and paintings of actors in costume were produced' each 2 year. The theatrical portrait represented the merging of painting and theatre, and the universal popularity of the London stage at the time was no less significant to the genre than the dominance of portraiture in English artistic circles. One of the most important events in British stage history was the 1737 Licensing Act, which Robert Walpole encouraged in reaction to Fielding's subversive plays. The act served the purpose of filtering all sexual and political innuendo out of stage plays through the agent of the government appointed dramatic censor, thereafter severely limit- ing the nature of playswhich appeared in London. Furthermore, the Licensing Act recognised only two London theatres - Covent Garden and 3 Drury Lane, thus guaranteeing conformity and uniformity in what the 4 London theatre-going public saw. This monopoly of public entertainment can be paralleled in our own day by the dominance of BBC-1 and BBC-2 on British television. With the cable revolution not yet off the ground, everyone in B/itain who watches television, from the humblest workman to the queen herself, sees more or le.s the same programmes and actors. In the intimate London society of the eighteenth century, this uniformity had a pronounced effect or the perceptions and expec'ationc. of any Londoner who attended the theatre. 2 When members of the London public went to see a play in the eighteenth century, they did not necessarily expect elaborate stage sets, compelling dramatic interpretations, subtle ideas or innovations; they, in fact went to see the actors. A mass of scandal sheets, biog- raphies and general theatrical criticism began to emerge from book- sellers, especially after the 1761 publication of Charles Churchill's sometimes scathing critique of actors, The Rosciad. 5 This sudden upsurge attests to just how widespread interest in the stage had become and how much this interest focussed upon the personal lives, careers and talents of individual actors.