Mrs Siddons as the Tragic Muse

Mrs Siddons as the Tragic MuseA studio replica of Reynolds's original of 1784 is in the Huntington Art Gallery, San Marino. It was painted for Noel Desenfans in exchange for a painting by Rubens.

More than three hundred and fifty years after she was painted - Rembrandt's ability to conjure up the sense of a living being out of paint can still astound

in a blue dress with pearls and bouquet of flowers

but his bride may tentatively be identified by her coat-of-arms as either Joan or Anne Cromwell

Ribera and then to Luca Giordano

and it may have originated in the master's studio

Calraet signed his paintings with the same initials as his master - A

which was engraved in that year by Levey (in oval format)

bustling seaport is effectively a 'capriccio' - a scene invented by the artist by juxtaposing selected elements in order to obtain heightened stylistic effects and atmospheres

The portrait was perhaps painted on the occasion of his being called to the bar in 1676

Carlo and Ubaldo

or shortly after

the blind Isaac