Fashion and Femininity

Nell Gwyn (1651-1687) throws you a deliciously superior glance as her robes fall off her shoulders and reveal a not-so-coy vision of milky breasts. King Charles II’s mistress, mother of at least two of his bastards, and one of the first actresses to perform at the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden, Gwyn seems exclusively to be painted getting into or out of her clothes. As one of the visitors to the National Portrait Gallery commented, ‘This one seemed to be cursed with a series of wardrobe malfunctions.’

Nell Gwyn’s mother Old Madam Gwyn is said to have been an alcoholic brothel owner, and accusations of prostitution followed Gwyn into her foray into the royal courts. Samuel Pepys, a fan of her charms, wrote in his diary in 1667 of Gwyn’s assertion that she was ‘but one man’s whore’ even though she was ‘brought up in a bawdy-house’.

The First Actresses exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery is a series of portraits by celebrated painters, such as Simon Verelst, Sir Peter Lely and Thomas Gainsborough, of the first actresses to be allowed on the English stage. Many of these pioneering leading ladies are painted with enticing peeks of nipple and flesh, combined with a self-preserving hauteur. Sarah Siddons, actress and reading instructor to King George III’s children, is painted with a stately but melancholic gaze by Sir Thomas Lawrence in 1804. Mary Robinson, favoured mistress of the Prince of Wales in the 1770s, is pictured by John Hoppner as a lady of fashion, with gloriously plumed hat and inviting décolletage.

What is it about actresses and dancers throughout history that leaves them prey to roving eyes and fingers? While the 1660s allowed actresses to perform on stage for the first time, these women were considered disreputable and dangerous, and encountered hostility from their hungry public. Automatically branded as whores, the performers teetered between the desires to succeed in their art, be disease-free while living in penury as labourers and mistresses, and to gain some measure of respect both for their acting talents and their throw-it-in-your-face personal lives.

Mary Robinson is reputed to have been offered £20,000 to become the Prince of Wales’s (later King George IV) mistress, after he was captivated by her performance as Perdita. The prince was soon bored of her, however, and never paid up the money, and she not only lost her reputation, but also her position as an actress. She revolted by becoming a successful poet and playwright, and a writer of feminist treatises.

Some of the choicest pieces in the exhibition are perhaps the ones least touted in the press. These are hilarious satirical etchings by artists such as William Hogarth and James Gillray. One, titled Strolling Actresses Dressing in a Barn, is a scene of dressers, seamstresses, half-dressed actresses, surrounded by a mind-numbing quantity of green room paraphernalia. Another, this one by Gillray, is simply titled The Whore’s Last Shift (1779).

The First Actresses exhibition is showing until January 8 at:

National Portrait Gallery
St Martin’s Place
Trafalgar Square
WC2H 0HE

Tel: 020 7306 0055