1738
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Strolling Actresses Dressing in a Barn is a 1738 by William Hogarth, a Baroque work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a crowded backstage scene: actresses in rumpled costumes, half-dressed, fixing wigs and makeup in a dim barn. Props and set pieces lie around—some grand, some broken. Hogarth made this as a protest. A new law let the government censor plays, so he showed the messy, real side of theater—far from the fancy stories on stage. A crown in the corner hints at the power behind the rules. Look up other works about England, 18th century to see how artists tackled politics and daily life.
Known for his satire, William Hogarth considered this print a protest of British prime minister Robert Walpole’s Licensing Act of 1737, which gave the government power to heavily censor theatrical productions. A reference to the act appears on a large crown in the left foreground, near a playbill. Still, Hogarth poked fun at the somewhat indulgent lifestyle of players by juxtaposing the actresses’ challenging reality with the stage sets and costumes that portray lofty classical deities and the heavens. The shabby and chaotic backstage is made more so by the hefty consumption of wine and other…
The playful irreverence of this backstage scene is underscored by the kittens in the foreground, one of whom plays with a globus cruciger , or cross-bearing orb, recognized as a symbol of authority throughout the Christian world.
Read the full account in the museum source.
William Hogarth (; 10 November 1697 – 26 October 1764) was an English painter, engraver, satirist, cartoonist and writer.
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