Portrait of Arthur Murphy ( 1727-1805), Actor and Author

Arthur Murphy, painted around 1773, was an Irish-born actor, playwright, and barrister who moved easily between London's theatrical, legal, and literary worlds. Murphy wrote numerous plays, translated classical authors, and edited the complete works of Johnson and Fielding—a man of letters with practical professional range unusual even in Georgian London's interconnected cultural world. Dance's portrait of Murphy documents his access to the theatrical and literary circles that orbited Garrick's Drury Lane, whose principal figures he also painted. Murphy's combination of theatrical and legal careers reflected the Georgian tendency for men of talent to cross professional boundaries that later Victorian professionalization would harden.

Dance renders the actor-playwright with an engaging directness that captures something of the theatrical presence that made Murphy a celebrated performer. The warm palette and animated expression distinguish this portrait from Dance's more formal commissions.