David Garrick

Maker Unknown

FormerFormerly attributed to Robert Edge Pine (British, 1730-1788)

SitterSitter: David Garrick (British, 1717 - 1779)

ClassificationsPAINTINGS

Dateca. 1775

Mediumoil on canvas

Dimensions27 x 22 1/8 in. (68.6 x 56.2 cm.)

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens

Status

Not on view

Label TextDavid Garrick was born on February 19, 1717, at the Angel Inn, Hereford, the third of seven surviving children of Arabella Clough (d.1738) and her husband Peter Garrick (d.1737), a lieutenant in the army. As a boy, he attended Lichfield grammar school, and around 1728 he made a brief stay in Lisbon to learn the vintners trade from an uncle. In 1736 Garrick and his younger brother George (d.1779) enrolled at Samuel Johnson's short-lived school at Edial, and in 1737 he and Johnson journeyed to London to seek their fortunes. Garrick established a wine business with his elder brother Peter, but abandoned it in 1741 after receiving acclaim for his performances as Richard III with a small acting troupe. He made his debut at Drury Lane theater on October 5, 1742 and continued to perform there for the next thirty-four years. On January 7, 1744 he took the lead in Macbeth "as written by Shakespeare," having restored much original material that had been excised or rewritten. In April 1747 he became joint manager of Drury Lane. On June 22, 1749 he married the Viennese dancer Eva Marie Veigel (1724-1822), and in the same year he revived Romeo and Juliet, which had not been performed in London for eighty years. Garrick advanced from success to success, but relentless controversy and occasional riots led to a temporary retirement at the close of the 1762-3 season. He and his wife had visited Paris in 1751 and they returned there in September 1763, continuing on to Rome, Naples, Venice, and Munich. In late April 1765 they were back in London, and Garrick's first appearances at Drury Lane that November were greeted with wild enthusiasm. He had long counted the cultural and aristocratic elite of Britain among his closest friends, and his social successes were as impressive as his theatrical achievements. Garrick's health began to decline around 1766, causing frequent bouts of severe pain. He made his farewell appearance at Drury Lane on June 10, 1776, and although he continued to provide theatrical advice, he devoted himself primarily to social calls and convalescence. He died on January 20, 1779 at his house in Adelphi Terrace, London, leaving a fortune estimated at £100,000. His tomb lies at the foot of Shakespeare's statue in Westminster Abbey.

This painting was acquired by The Huntington as a work by Robert Edge Pine (c.1720-88), who produced a number of portraits of Garrick, all of which are modeled on a single, mask-like conception of the actor's face. The present portrait deviates entirely from this standard type, and although unquestionably a likeness of Garrick, it is probably not by Pine. It most closely resembles a pencil sketch of Garrick by Edward Edwards, signed and dated 1777, which purports to be the last drawing made directly from life prior to the actor's death two years later. Although Garrick's phenomenal fame led at least one other artist to promote his portrait as "the last" likeness made of him, Edwards's inscribed date carries some authority. The likeness itself offers a convincing image of Garrick at the age of sixty, prematurely aged by illness and, as Samuel Johnson claimed, by the "eternal, restless, fatiguing play of the muscles" occasioned by his vivacity, which "must certainly wear out a man's face before its real time."
After making allowances for flattery, it would appear that the present portrait was made slightly earlier than Edwards's drawing, before the ravages of Garrick's chronic illness had taken their full toll. The deep furrows recorded in the drawing are absent from the painting, but there is a hint of the same jowliness in the thickened jawline. The grave, though pleasant, expression and the dulled eye (once famous for its lively glitter) convey a subdued impression similar to that in the drawing. The advanced age and dampened mood of the painting are highly idiosyncratic relative to other likenesses of the actor, which fall in line with Samuel Johnson's characterization of Garrick as "the Cheerfullest man of his age." The unusual conception suggests that this painting was made from the man himself, rather than modeled on one of his prior portraits.
Equally unusual is the vivid blue of Garrick's vest, which is rather bright for an English context. His fur-lined coat, too, has a slightly exotic quality; it was an article of dress frequently adopted by Englishmen on the Continent but worn less frequently at home. The artist's intention may have been to dissociate Garrick from his profession, portraying him as a well-travelled and sophisticated man of the world, rather than an actor who made his living on the stage. The painting was originally conceived as an oval (like Edwards's drawing), but was expanded to a rectangle sometime between 1875 and 1919. The larger format does a disservice to the original painting by diluting its impact and robbing the strong head of its psychological intensity.

Bibliography

British paintings at the Huntington

Object number19.4