ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Thomas Sully's portraits of Fanny Kemble, specifically of her as Beatrice, and his culminating dramatic portrait, Queen Victoria. On October 5, 1829, Frances Anne Kemble debuted at Covent Garden as Juliet. She triumphed, completely, and a month short of twenty became the toast of London. On October 10 the Kembles conquered Philadelphia. Then, after a successful engagement in Baltimore, they moved on to Washington where the aged John Marshall, long Chief Justice of the United States, wept at her performances. Later years Mrs Kemble spent in England. James valued her "deep, rich human nature" and thought her "the first woman in London". The Kembles, as Britain's leading acting family, were welcome in London's fashionable circles, but in America the reception was less favorable. Fanny Kemble as Beatrice joins his full-length Victoria as one of Sully's few portraits that shows the subject with parted lips.
