Details of Sculptor

Show Works

Surname	Siddons	Alternative Surname
First Name	Sarah	Initial of Surname	S
Year of Birth/Baptism	1755	Flourished
Year of Death	1831
Biographical Details	The actress apparently took up modelling in 1789, because she did not think that the existing portraits of her were very accurate. She executed self-portraits, and a bust of her brother, John Kemble (2). J T Smith, quoting from Dallaway 1800, recorded ‘The first tragedian of the English stage, Mrs Siddons, has executed the busts of herself and her brother, Mr John Kemble, with astonishing truth and effect’ (Smith 1920 ed, 370). She was a friend of Anne Seymour Damer, with whom she practiced modelling on visits to Strawberry Hill and Mrs Damer’s letters make numerous references to her sculptural work. Literary References: Bilbey 2002, 358-9