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Life mask of Mrs Sarah Siddons
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Life mask of Mrs Sarah Siddons
Plaster
Museum number: M466
On display: Basement East Corridor
All spaces are in No. 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields unless identified as in No. 12, Soane's first house.
For tours https://www.soane.org/your-visit
Curatorial note
We do not know how Soane acquired this life mask of the actress Sarah Siddons (1755-1831). In the 1830s it hung in the Sepulchral Chamber in the basement where Soane described it in 1835, noting that it was 'a Mask of Mrs Siddons, taken from the life, the lip of which, at the right corner, is a little distorted, from the unpleasant sensation produced by the pressure of the plaster'.
Mrs Siddons was the leading actress of the Georgian stage, especially renowned for her portrayal of tragic female roles, above all others Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth. She was the sister of the celebrated actor John Phillip Kemble and the actor and theatre manager Charles Kemble.
Soane owned a copy of Boaden's Memoirs of Mrs Siddons and two of the chess pieces in his collection, modelled by John Flaxman, are said to be based on Mrs Siddons and John Philip Kemble as Lady Macbeth and Macbeth.
Mrs Siddons was the leading actress of the Georgian stage, especially renowned for her portrayal of tragic female roles, above all others Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth. She was the sister of the celebrated actor John Phillip Kemble and the actor and theatre manager Charles Kemble.
Soane owned a copy of Boaden's Memoirs of Mrs Siddons and two of the chess pieces in his collection, modelled by John Flaxman, are said to be based on Mrs Siddons and John Philip Kemble as Lady Macbeth and Macbeth.
Literature
Sir J. Soane, Description, 1835, p.34
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