[Marvelous Portrait of Early American Stage Phenomenon Charlotte Cushman]

[London]: T.H. Maguire, 1846. Lithograph, 11.25 x 9 inches. Staining to corners from glue on verso, some surface wear and dust soiling, trimmed closely, just touching the flourish in the facsimile signature, paper remnants at corners on verso from previous mounting. Good plus. A rare portrait of the legendary and controversial American stage actress, Charlotte Cushman (1816-1876). Cushman was an international force on the stage, and considered the finest American actress of her age. She had an unusual ability in the 19th century to take on male as well as female roles, while also sporting a voice with a full contralto register. Cushman has become a modern queer icon based on her relationships with and faithful support of other women in her circle. At various times, she was engaged (sometimes openly) in romantic relationships with the artist Rosalie Sully, the writer Anne Hampton Brewster, actress and writer Matilda Hays, and sculptor Emma Stebbins. Cushman and Hays were publicly known as a couple and moved together to Rome in 1852, living in an American expatriate community of other queer artists and writers. Cushman returned to the United States in the 1860s and gave several more prominent stage performances, her last role being Lady Macbeth at the Globe Theatre in Boston in 1875. She died the next year of pneumonia.

In the present portrait, Cushman is seated, turned slightly to her right and looking directly at the viewer. Her right hand is resting on the arm of a chair, with her left holding an open tie at her chest. She is wearing a simple dress, her hair parted at the centre and tied back. Her facsimile signature is printed in the lower margin. At right, the lithographer T.H Maguire has signed and dated the image in the stone. Thomas Herbert Maguire was a prominent artist and lithographer working in London in the mid-19th century. He specialized in portraits and genre scenes, and served as official lithographer to Queen Victoria, exhibiting a portrait of her at the Royal Academy in 1855. Maguire's portrait of Cushman testifies to the prominence of the actress on the world stage. The portrait was likely executed during Cushman's time in London in 1845 and 1846, when she was performing in Romeo and Juliet with her sister Susan.

"With her forceful stage presence, powerful voice, and not inconsiderable height for the time period (a whole five feet six inches tall!), she dominated the stage on both sides of the Atlantic throughout her multi-decade career. Cushman never married and used this aspect of her life to portray herself in the media as a chaste 'true woman' who sacrificed her domestic life out of dedication to supporting her family and her art after the untimely death of her father (who had actually abandoned his family years before). This was a tactic meant to deflect concerns about the reputation of the theater for 'immoral' sexual behavior. In reality, Cushman, who was known to surround herself with a circle of female friends and admirers, had a number of romantic relationships with other women throughout her life. The wealth and fame that Cushman earned from her popularity on the stage allowed her a degree of freedom not available to most women of her time. She was known to sometimes don 'masculine attire' in public and lived as the head of a household of 'emancipated women,' which included several of the female romantic partners that she had throughout her life and a group of unmarried women artists and writers, whose careers she promoted and financially supported" - Bianca Scialabba, "Miss Cushman Is a Very Dangerous Young Man": The Meteoric Rise and Posthumous Erasure of a 19th Century Celebrity, Newport Historical Society, June 24, 2024.