Romeo and Juliet Staffordshire figurine
date: label: date made
content: 1852
name: label: depicted (sitter)
content: Cushman, Charlotte
notes: label: Description
content: This ceramic figurine depicts Charlotte Cushman and her sister Susan playing Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Produced by British potter Thomas Parr, who became famous for these types of collectible figurines, it copies the image in the print by Thomas Fairland which was released just after the sisters' initial 1845 run in these roles. As a result, Parr's ceramic illustrates the lasting celebrity Cushman crafted through her performances of Romeo, which continued well into the 1860s even though her sister retired from acting in 1848.
label: Description
content: Essential to understanding Cushman's popularity in the role is the popular perception of what contemporaries called her "masculine" features and bearing. Other actresses played Romeo, but most played the character with gestures and voices that remained identifiably feminine. By contrast, Cushman's performance was, as the London Times put it, "not a caricature" that attracted crowds simply to see cross-dressing. Cushman was celebrated for her realism in the role, and scholars have noted that her ardent acting reflected dalliances with several of her co-starring Juliets. All of Cushman's known romantic relationships were with women, and she financed a community of "jolly female bachelors" outside Rome, all of whom were artists of some kind and several of whom were active in resisting period norms of women's clothing, marriage, and work. In sum, then, this figurine celebrates a woman who achieved stardom while refusing to conform.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United Kingdom
topic: label: general subject association
content: Theater
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Entertainment
label: See more items in
content: Popular Entertainment
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2016.0259.01
label: accession number
content: 2016.0259
label: catalog number
content: 2016.0259.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: figurine
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: glaze (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: ceramic (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 10 1/4 in x 6 in x 4 in; 26.035 cm x 15.24 cm x 10.16 cm