Paradox of Pearls

Pearls and Performance

Pearls on actresses, courtesans, and allegorical figures showcase strategies for self-fashioning that promoted nobility, purity, and femininity while simultaneously signifying sexuality and deception.

Caroline Watson, after Robert Edge Pine
Mrs. Siddons
Stipple engraving with hand-coloring
Published May 1, 1784, by John Boydell
Portraits Si568 no. 1++ Impression 1
The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University

This print depicts the celebrated actress Sarah Siddons as Euphrasia in the final act of Arthur Murray’s play The Grecian Daughter, one of her signature roles. The caption reads: “In a dear Father’s cause, A Woman’s Vengance tow’rs above her Sex.” Siddons poses holding a dagger suspended in midair as she pleads for the release of her father. Pearls appear threaded through her hair and decorate her sandals. While pearls were commonly part of stage costumes, it is not clear if Siddons wore pearls in her hair while performing. In practice, it would have been tricky for Siddons to have acted with pearls in her hair, particularly fake pearls, likely made of wax. This embellishment may have been added to this portrait to enhance the fantastical elements of the costume. In his The Tragic Muse, Sir Joshua Reynolds’s depiction of Siddons also features an elaborate pearl necklace that probably did not exist.

François Germain Aliamet, after Robert Edge Pine
Mrs. Pritchard in the Character of Hermione in The Winter’s Tale
Engraving
Published 1765 by Robert Edge Pine
Portraits P961 no. 1
The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University

Mrs. Pritchard in the Character of Hermione depicts the actress coming to life in act 5, scene 3 of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale. She wears a classically draped gown and elaborate veil, pearl earrings, and a pearl necklace of double strands connecting to a cross. Her pose echoes the sculptural relief of a woman seen on a large urn behind her, which suggests that, as a living statue, she is also a work of art. Pritchard’s pearls connect her image to timeless antique beauty and artistic legacy, particularly Ovid’s Pygmalion. In her role as Hermione, Pritchard is Galatea, but as an actress and creator, she is simultaneously Pygmalion.

John Peter Simon, after Francis Wheatly
Taming of the Shrew, Act 2, Scene 2
Trial proof
Stipple and etching
Published July 1, 1790, by J. & J. Boydell
Drawer 724 803B no. 83
The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University

John Peter Simon, after Robert Smirke
Merry Wives of Windsor
Trial proof
Stipple
Published January 1, 1792, by J. & J. Boydell
Drawer 724 803 no. 64
The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University

In The Taming of the Shrew, Kate, attired in a white stage dress with pearls around the bodice of her gown, is restrained by Petruchio. (See pearls on the bodices of Lady Ann Campbell, Maria Walpole, and Queen Charlotte). The character Anne Page in the first scene of The Merry Wives of Windsor wears a fashionable necklace of pearls reflecting her role as a lively, clever woman in one of Shakespeare’s “modern” comedies. Both plays highlight anxieties about gender roles and female agency. Audiences in Boydell’s Gallery and in the theater could potentially see themselves reflected in actresses’ performances of Shakespeare’s popular heroines.

James Wilson, after Henry Morland
Fair Nun Unmasked
Mezzotint
Printed for Carington Bowles, 1769
769.00.00.01+
The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University

In an act of disguise and revelation, a woman in masquerade costume, dressed as a nun wearing pearl earrings, a pearl necklace, and pearls in her hair, holds a mask in one hand. Masquerade practices were paradoxically associated with the elite, who reveled in costuming themselves for these occasions, and with actresses who used costumes and accessories professionally to inhabit specific roles on stage. The caption of the print from the second canto of Alexander Pope’s mock epic “The Rape of the Lock” emphasizes the connections among the figure of the nun, illicit sexuality, and mystery. “On her white Breast a sparkling Cross she wore / Which Jews might kiss and Infidels adore.” Drawing the spectator’s attention to the nun’s necklaces, “sparkling cross,” and pearls highlights the idea of accessories as signifiers of vanity, theatricality, and exotic temptation. The oval frame of the image creates an intimate view, like a mirror or a portrait miniature.

Printmaker unidentified
The Female Florists
Mezzotint
Published January 10, 1773, by Robert Sayer
773.01.10.01+
The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University

The Female Florist depicts two female figures, perhaps a mother and her daughter, in an interior space posed in front of a red velvet curtain. They are accessorized in matching pearl chokers and earrings, framed by a tree of pink flowers on one side and a table with decorative pots, possibly holding cosmetics or other beauty products, on the other. The association between pearls and flowers here suggests purity and fertility, the passing on of loveliness and productivity from mother to daughter, as well as the selling and advertising of commodities associated with beauty and sexual availability.

William Hogarth
Strolling Actresses
State 4
Etching and engraving
Published March 25, 1738, by William Hogarth
Kinnaird 36K
The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University

Hogarth’s Strolling Actresses portrays a variety of figures backstage in the act of dressing and costuming themselves. A woman in the center stands on a pedestal, theatrically posed and scantily clothed, wearing pearls around her neck and in her hair. The actress’s accessories highlight the fact that she is not properly covered; her jewelry becomes a potent seductive invitation to look at and assess her body. In the foreground, another actress is dressed in an elegant costume, wears a crown, and has pearls in her hair, around her neck, and across her bodice. She looks up from a prompt book and appears to be practicing her lines. A monkey sits in front of her suggesting her process of aping or mimicking people of a higher social class. The moralizing satire suggests that, despite actresses’ attempts at accessorizing, the results of their self-fashioning will always be an illusion.