Looking at the assorted David Garrick portraits available online, I find him unexpectedly likeable -- unexpectedly because that is not the reaction one normally encounters from viewing a selection of 18th-century oil paintings, though he was lucky in apparently being a favourite subject for all the top portrait artists of the era! But 'likeable' wasn't, presumably, the *intended* viewer response; his eyes just look clever and kind, and he comes across as a real person even in the formal portraits.
Perhaps I should take up the Alan Kendall biography of Garrick that I happen to have on the shelf (inherited and never read)... although like most short men (and actors) he was probably very vain and touchy in real life!
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timeasmymeasure
Garrick
Date: 2024-07-14 10:53 am (UTC)All I really know about him is that he was an early exponent of 'realistic' acting as opposed to standing and declaiming, he was a great Shakespeare enthusiast (and built "Garrick's Folly", where I once attended a concert https://www.garrickstemple.org.uk/ ), and was famously short -- possibly one of the first examples of the Hollywood Leading Man Effect, where small men have relatively larger heads and therefore their facial expressions make more impact? ;)
https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw126699/Facsimile-of-the-Proportions-of-Garrick-and-Quin-David-Garrick-James-Quin?LinkID=mp01730&search=sas&sText=david+garrick&wPage=2&role=sit&rNo=51
Perhaps I should take up the Alan Kendall biography of Garrick that I happen to have on the shelf (inherited and never read)... although like most short men (and actors) he was probably very vain and touchy in real life!