Johann Zoffany, ‘Elizabeth Farren as Hermione in The Winter’s Tale'(c. 1780). National Gallery of Victoria, Everard Studley Miller Bequest.
Vivien Gaston, ‘Staying Alive: Johann Zoffany’s Portrait of Elizabeth Farren as Hermione in Shakespeare’s ‘A Winter’s Tale’, c. 1780’.
Johan Zoffany’s portrait of Elizabeth Farren as Hermione in Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale represents one of the most striking, controversial and memorable scenes in all of Shakespeare’s plays. It is also a portrait of an actress whose private and public lives were equally intriguing, one of a few highly successful women whose celebrity status enabled their radical upward mobility. As a portrait, which creates the illusion that its subject, Elizabeth Farren, is before us, this life-size depiction provides a new interpretation on Shakespeare’s theme of the relationship of art and life. It adds further power to the theatrical moment when Hermione ‘comes to life’, with its reverberations both magical and humane. Through a range of visual and textual examples, this paper will explore the role of portraits when adopting theatrical personae in the late eighteenth century. It will review depictions of Hermione in the visual arts and the context for Zoffany’s remarkable reinterpretation, including new evidence about its provenance.
Monday 14 April, 6:30pm.
Dulcie Hollyock Room, Ground Floor, Baillieu Library (Building 177), University of Melbourne, Parkville (map).
Melbourne Portrait Group 