The First Actresses
dal 19/10/2011 al 7/1/2012
Segnalato da
19/10/2011
The First Actresses
National Portrait Gallery, London
The First Actresses explores the vibrant and sometimes controversial relationship between art, gender and the theatre in eighteenth-century Britain. Combining much-loved masterpieces with newly discovered and little-known works, the show will explore the ways in which actresses used portraiture to enhance their reputations, deflect scandal and increase their popularity and professional status.
The First Actresses -Nell Gwyn to Sarah Siddons- 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.
Featuring famous masterpieces alongside works that are on show for the first time, the fascinating stories of actresses such as Nell Gwyn, Kitty Clive, Hester Booth, Lavinia Fenton, Elizabeth Linley, Sarah Siddons, Mary Robinson and Dorothy Jordan will be explored through portraits by the leading artists of the period including Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, John Hoppner and James Gillray.
Exhibition supported by the Patrons of the National Portrait Gallery.
Image: Frances Abington as Miss Prue in Love for Love, by Sir Jishua Reynolds, 1771 (detail), (c) Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
For further press information and image requests please contact: Neil Evans, Press Office, National Portrait Gallery Tel: 020 7312 2452 Email: nevans@npg.org.uk
National Portrait Gallery
St Martin's Place - London
Hours: Daily 10.00 – 18.00, Closure commences at 17.50
Thursdays and Fridays until 21.00, Closure commences at 20.50
Admission:
Standard tickets £11.00
Senior citizens (aged 60 and over) £10.00
Concessions £9.00 (children aged 12-18 years, registered unemployed, students, disabled people with one carer).