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David Garrick Between the Muses of Comedy and Tragedy
David Garrick Between the Muses of Comedy and Tragedy

David Garrick Between the Muses of Comedy and Tragedy

Artist/Maker (English, 1730–1785)
after (English, 1723–1792)
Date1762
MediumMezzotint
DimensionsImage: 16 7/8 × 19 11/16 in. (42.9 × 50 cm)
Sheet: 17 × 19 13/16 in. (43.2 × 50.3 cm)
Credit LineAnnie A. Wager Bequest
Object number1975.80
Status
Not on view
More Information
David Garrick, the most famous actor in Georgian England, shrewdly solicited portraits by Joshua Reynolds and others in order to promote his career. One of many paintings Reynolds produced of Garrick, this witty depiction of the actor operates on several levels. Pictured between the muses of comedy and tragedy, Garrick is not only torn between the two genres of his profession but also mimics the Choice of Hercules between vice and virtue, a common trope during the late eighteenth century. Furthermore, comedy is rendered in the style of Antonio Correggio, and tragedy, in that of Guido Reni. In quoting these two Old Masters - the former renowned for his sensuous color and the latter, his linear classicism - Reynolds cleverly recasts an age-old debate between two opposing artistic theories.
Exhibition History
English Political Portraits of the Eighteenth Century
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (May 10, 1932 - June 7, 1932 )
Exhibition of English Political Portraits of the Eighteenth Century
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (January 7, 1936 - January 31, 1936 )
Investigating Romanticism, 1750-1850: A Century of Contrasts
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (October 28, 1980 - November 23, 1980 )
Eighteenth-Century English Prints
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (June 19, 1987 - July 19, 1987 )
Out of Albion: British Art from the Allen Memorial Art Museum
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (August 26, 2008 - December 23, 2008 )
Performers: Dancers, Actors, and Musicians
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (September 6, 2012 - December 23, 2012 )
Collections
  • European
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