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Thomas Hickey , Irish, 1741-1824

Title

An Actor between the Muses of Tragedy and Comedy

Date1781

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions

101.1 x 127 cm

Signedlower left: T. Hickey 1781

Credit LinePurchased, 1925

Object numberNGI.862

DescriptionAn actor stands in front of a cave between two elegant figures representing the muses Tragedy and Comedy. He points with his right hand to a pedestal surmounted by an urn, which bears the inscription ‘Hence vain deluding joys’, a line from Milton’s Il Penseroso. As he does so, Comedy, dressed in diaphanous pink, tries to prevent him from reading such an overtly moral phrase or engaging with the grave figure of Tragedy, who, dressed in appropriately sombre attire, leans on a rock awaiting his decision. The clear implication of the subject is that to favour Comedy over Tragedy would be to choose a frivolous path. This moral dilemma is a variation of another subject popular among artists for centuries: Hercules at the crossroads, caught between the figures of Virtue and Vice.
In the choice of subject, Hickey owes a debt to Joshua Reynolds’s celebrated painting Garrick between the Muses of Tragedy and Comedy (1760–61). However, the technique and colour range call to mind more strikingly the work of Thomas Gainsborough. Hickey, who had trained at the Dublin Society’s Drawing School, painted this picture in Lisbon, where he had settled after the capture by the French and Spanish fleet of the ship on which he was travelling. After three years and many portrait commissions, he was given permission to return to England and soon after set sail again for India, where he saw out a lengthy and successful career.

March 2016
ProvenancePurchased, Captain R. Langton Douglas, 1925 Exhibition HistoryLes Arts du Théâtre de Watteau à Fragonard, Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux, 1980

Aspects of Irish Art, a Loan Exhibition; Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Columbus, Ohio, 27 January - 3 March 1974; Toledo Museum of Arts, Toledo, Ohio, 17 March - 14 April 1974; St Louis Art Museum, St Louis, Missouri, 3 May - 9 June 1974
Label TextAn actor, standing between the Muses, points to a pedestal surmounted by an urn, which bears the inscription ‘Hence vain deluding joys’, a line from Milton’s Il Penseroso. As he does so, Comedy tries to prevent him from reading the overtly moral phrase or engaging with the grave figure of Tragedy. The picture’s implication is that to favour Comedy over Tragedy would be to choose a frivolous path. The picture owes a debt to Joshua Reynolds’s celebrated painting Garrick between the Muses of Tragedy and Comedy (1760-61), while the technique and colour range recall the work of Thomas Gainsborough.