Not on display

Miss Stephens of the Theatre Royal Drury Lane

Print
1st September 1823 (published)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Born in London on the 18th September 1794, the soprano Catherine Stephens studied singing for five years from the age of thirteen with the London-based Italian musician Gesualdo Lanza, during which time she sang in Bristol, Bath, Southampton, Ramsgate and Margate, and appeared in subordinate parts with an Italian opera company based at London’s Pantheon. From 1813 she studied with the singing master Thomas Welsh and first appeared at Covent Garden that September as Mandane in Thomas Arne’s opera Artaxerxes. Success in that role was followed in October by the role of Polly in John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera and in November as Clara in Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s comic opera The Duenna .

Catherine Stephens stayed at Covent Garden until 1822 singing a variety of roles including Susana to John Liston’s Figaro in Henry Rowley Bishop's 1819 adaptation of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, and Rowena in an adaptation of Ivanhoe in March 1820. Miss Stephens joined Elliston’s company at Drury Lane in 1822, singing leading roles there for the next five years, and frequently starring in concerts and festivals. She retired in 1835 and on 19th April 1838 married the octogenarian widower George Capel- Coningsby. He died the following April and she survived him by forty-three years, dying in their house at 9, Belgrave Square on 22nd February 1882.

This portrait appeared in no.178 of La Belle Assemblée, or Bell's Court and Fashionable Magazine, the magazine first published in 1806 by the successful London printer John Bell (1745- 1831), who owned several other magazines. La Belle Assemblée was primarily a women's magazine with fashion plates, celebrity profiles, sheet music, poetry, fiction, news items and some scientific articles. Its first fashion plates from February 1806 were not coloured, but from November 1806 it came out in two forms, uncoloured at 2s 6d or hand-coloured at 3s 6d, illustrating outfits worn by ladies of rank as well as the latest styles. It was printed monthly for people to compile into volumes, and rather confusingly its illustrations were dated a month ahead. This portrait of Miss Stephens is dated 1st September 1823.

Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleMiss Stephens of the Theatre Royal Drury Lane (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
Engraving, printed ink on paper
Brief description
Print depicting Catherine Stephens, later the Countess of Essex (1794-1882). Engraved by J. Thompson from a drawing by Wageman. Published in London for La Belle Assembleé on 1st September 1823. Harry Beard Collection
Physical description
Half-length engraved portrait of Catherine Stephens, seated on an upright chair in front of a bowl of flowers, looking to her right, her left arm behind the top rail of the chair, her left hand resting on it
Dimensions
  • Height: 23.5cm
  • Width: 14.6cm
Marks and inscriptions
Credit line
Harry R. Beard Collection, given by Isobel Beard
Subject depicted
Association
Summary
Born in London on the 18th September 1794, the soprano Catherine Stephens studied singing for five years from the age of thirteen with the London-based Italian musician Gesualdo Lanza, during which time she sang in Bristol, Bath, Southampton, Ramsgate and Margate, and appeared in subordinate parts with an Italian opera company based at London’s Pantheon. From 1813 she studied with the singing master Thomas Welsh and first appeared at Covent Garden that September as Mandane in Thomas Arne’s opera Artaxerxes. Success in that role was followed in October by the role of Polly in John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera and in November as Clara in Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s comic opera The Duenna .

Catherine Stephens stayed at Covent Garden until 1822 singing a variety of roles including Susana to John Liston’s Figaro in Henry Rowley Bishop's 1819 adaptation of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, and Rowena in an adaptation of Ivanhoe in March 1820. Miss Stephens joined Elliston’s company at Drury Lane in 1822, singing leading roles there for the next five years, and frequently starring in concerts and festivals. She retired in 1835 and on 19th April 1838 married the octogenarian widower George Capel- Coningsby. He died the following April and she survived him by forty-three years, dying in their house at 9, Belgrave Square on 22nd February 1882.

This portrait appeared in no.178 of La Belle Assemblée, or Bell's Court and Fashionable Magazine, the magazine first published in 1806 by the successful London printer John Bell (1745- 1831), who owned several other magazines. La Belle Assemblée was primarily a women's magazine with fashion plates, celebrity profiles, sheet music, poetry, fiction, news items and some scientific articles. Its first fashion plates from February 1806 were not coloured, but from November 1806 it came out in two forms, uncoloured at 2s 6d or hand-coloured at 3s 6d, illustrating outfits worn by ladies of rank as well as the latest styles. It was printed monthly for people to compile into volumes, and rather confusingly its illustrations were dated a month ahead. This portrait of Miss Stephens is dated 1st September 1823.
Associated objects
Collection
Accession number
S.87-2013

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Record createdJanuary 10, 2013
Record URL
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