扮作悲剧缪斯的萨拉·西登斯

In 1784 Sarah Siddons was the most celebrated tragic actress on the London stage, and Joshua Reynolds, president of the Royal Academy, wanted to paint her as something grander than a theatrical star. He seated her as Melpomene, the muse of tragedy herself, on a throne lifted into shadow, with the dim figures of Pity and Terror behind her. When it went on show that year it was treated less as a portrait than as a history painting, the most ambitious kind of art of the age. Reynolds signed his name along the gold hem of her dress, telling her he meant to go down to posterity on the border of her garment.