Viva la divas: First Actresses at the National Portrait Gallery – in pictures
Nell Gwyn by Simon Verelst, c1680Photograph: National Portrait Gallery LondonLavinia Fenton, probably by George Knapton, c1739 Photograph: Private CollectionFrances Abington as Prue in Congreve’s Love for Love by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1771Photograph: Paul Mellon Collection/Yale Center for British Art
The Three Witches from Shakespeare’s Macbeth by Daniel Gardner, 1775Photograph: The National Portrait GalleryWilliam Smith as Hamlet and Elizabeth Hopkins as Gertrude in Shakespeare’s Hamlet by James Roberts, 1777-8Photograph: Garrick Club/The Art ArchiveAn Actress at Her Toilet or Miss Brazen Just Breecht by John Collett, c1779 Photograph: The Trustees of the British MuseumGiovanna Baccelli by Thomas Gainsborough, exhibited 1782Photograph: Tate, London/National Portrait GalleryHenry Angelo as Mrs Cole in The Minor by Samuel de Wilde, c1792Photograph: Garrick Club/The Art ArchiveDilettante Theatricals: or a Peep at the Green Room by James Gillray, 1803 Photograph: The Trustees of the British Museum
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