2391072

Portrait of Anna Margaretta Larpent 1758-1830 #2391072

Currency:USD Category:Art Start Price:800.00 USD Estimated At:0.00 USD
Portrait of Anna Margaretta Larpent 1758-1830 #2391072
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Portrait of Anna Margaretta Larpent 1758-1830 by Sir Martin Archer Shee PRA </em></td>
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Anna Margaretta Larpent was the daughter of Sir James Porter, British Ambassador in Turkey 1745-1762. She married the widower John Larpent, who was seventeen years her senior. He had been a successful civil servant, working in the Foreign Office, and in 1778 he had been appointed Examiner of Plays in the Office of the Lord Chamberlain. He held this position throughout their marriage. Anna Margaretta herself became an important figure and her diaries have been published as A Womans View of Drama 1790-1830 (the originals are in the Huntington Library).

The Examiner of Plays was an extremely influential figure in the development of drama and was much more powerful than modern censors. All plays required licensing before performance and the Examiner had the sole power to award them. Both husband and wife collaborated in the work with the result, according to L W Conolly?s study of John Larpent in 1976, that Anna Margaretta Larpent became 'practically a Deputy Examiner'. She had sole responsibility for the censorship of Italian opera since she was fluent in the language (as well as French) while her husband was not. She also became a champion of Mrs Inchbald (1753-1821), who went on to write some 20 plays for the stage. The following excerpt from Larpent?s diary shows admiration for Lover?s Vows, Inchbald?s adaptation from Kotzebue?s play that later featured in Jane Austen?s Mansfield Park (enacted by the Bertram family):In her diaries, Anna Larpent recorded her reading, criticism, ...
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#: 2962</td>
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<tr><td>Condition:Good</td></tr>
<tr><td>Year:18th Century</td></tr>
<tr><td>Country:UK</td></tr>
<tr><td>Maker:Sir Martin Archer Shee PRA</td></tr>
<tr><td>Height:30</td></tr>

<tr><td>Width:25</td></tr>

<tr><td>Title:Portrait of Anna Margaretta Larpent 1758-1830</td></tr>
<tr><td>Style:Traditional</td></tr>
<tr><td>Materials:Oil on Canvas</td></tr>
<tr><td>Type:Oil on Canvas</td></tr>
<tr><td>Location:london uk</td></tr>
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