I was excited to read in the newspaper yesterday of an upcoming exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery entitled The First Actresses: Nell Gwyn to Sarah Siddons. As you can probably guess, it's a display of portraits of actress from the late seventeenth through to the eighteenth century, and by all accounts it sounds as though there are going to be some good ones: as well as the two in the exhibition's title, this news article references Susannah Cibber, Mary Robinson, and (my personal favourite), Dora Jordan, some of the most famous eighteenth-century actresses (and in some cases, playwrights).
It does seem as though the exhibition's focus will be on beautiful young things which is rather a shame - grotesque women and women in drag have a place in eighteenth-century theatrical history, particularly in burlesques, and their portraits were certainly painted. Nevertheless, I'm greatly looking forward to it. October can't come quickly enough!
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