Discover Top Posts Tagged with #ellen terry

John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), 'Ellen Terry as Lady MacBeth', ''The Art of the World'', Vol. 9, 1896

#john singer sargent #american artists #ellen terry #lady macbeth #william shakespeare #vintage art

The beetle wings dress

ELLEN TERRY AS LADY MCBETH AND THE BEETLE WINGS DRESS, 1889

"On 29 December 1888 a packed auditorium at London’s Lyceum Theatre sat in anticipation of the opening of Henry Irving’s revival of Macbeth. In taking the male lead and casting Ellen Terry (1847-1928) as Lady Macbeth, Irving was reuniting one of British theatre’s most cherished acting partnerships. Moreover, audience curiosity was piqued by Terry’s departure from her usual role of Shakespearean heroine to play a plotting villainess. As the curtain rose, her appearance on stage immediately drew gasps. For she emerged wearing a costume of bewitching splendour, a dress of shimmering green embellished with iridescent beetle-wing cases, finished with a velvet heather-coloured cloak over which her dark red hair, plaited in gold, cascaded.

Created by the esteemed costume designer Alice Laura Comyns-Carr and her dressmaker Ada Cort Nettleship, it was the first of three costumes intended to illustrate Lady Macbeth’s changing psychological state through the play. Inspired by a medieval effigy of Clotilde, queen of the Franks originally from Notre-Dame de Paris, Comyns-Carr combined the form of her open sleeved long gown and long braided hair surmounted by a crown with contemporary influences of artists in her circle, such as the Pre-Raphaelite painter Edward Burne-Jones. The dress’s green embodied the ruthless ambition and plot to murder of the play’s opening acts, while the crochet construction overlaid with beetle-wing cases combined the look of ‘soft chain armour’, with the ‘appearance of the scales of a serpent’.

Although critics and theatregoers were divided over Terry’s characterisation, they were united on the visual impact of her performance. Her costume created an ethereal vision that ‘might have stood in the court of Camelot’. Oscar Wilde, noting the contrast between her dress and the austere garb of the male cast, quipped ‘Lady Macbeth seems an economical housekeeper, and evidently patronises local industries for her husband’s clothes and the servants’ liveries; but she takes care to do her own shopping in Byzantium’. The dress was further immortalised in John Singer Sargent’s commanding full-length portrait of Terry as Lady Macbeth in 1889 which pictured the dramatic moment Lady Macbeth claims her crown as witnessed by him on opening night."

Nationaltrustcollections.co.uk

#historical costuming #john singer sargent #lady macbeth #pre raphaelite #ellen terry #victorian art #victorian #shakespeare #macbeth

Choosing (Ellen Terry) by George Frederick Watts (1864)

#choosing #ellen terry #George Frederick Watts #british #painter #artist #female #portrait #romanticism #allegory #art #painting #oil on canvas #19th century #flowers

Ellen Terry (Choosing) (1864) by George Frederic Watts (British, 1817 – 1904), oil on strawboard mounted on Gatorfoam, 18 5/8 in. x 13 7/8 in. (472 mm x 352 mm, National Portrait Gallery, London.

#ellen terry #choosing #George Frederic Watts #painting #my upload #art #fine art #oil painting #allegorical portrait of his 16-year-old wife actress Ellen Terry #deciding between a showy scentless camellia (representing worldly vanity and the temptations of the stage)#and humble fragrant violets (representing innocence purity and domestic virtue)#Allegory of Choice:#The painting captures a moral dilemma with Terry dressed in a gown by William Holman Hunt #deciding between a life of shallow glamour (camellias) and one of quiet modest virtue (violets)#Theatrical Temptation:#Watts created the piece to represent his hope that Terry would abandon her stage career—#which he viewed as a source of vanity and dangerous temptations—to become his muse and wife #Personal Context:#The 30-year age gap between the 46-year-old artist #his 16-year-old bride is reflected in the theme as Watts sought to guide her towards a more domestic life.#Camellias: Symbolize the empty alluring and shallow nature of the stage #Violets: Symbolize innocence simplicity and true quiet value #Artistic Style: The work is heavily influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite style #Venetian Renaissance art focusing on intense color and rich symbolic detail #The painting ultimately reflects the couple's short-lived 10-month marriage and their differing life philosophies

Facts about Ellen Terry, who a newspaper compares The Bloofer Lady's beauty to:

Ellen Terry was a close friend of Stoker's at the Lyceum theatre.

She depended upon Stoker, calling him "Ma” and "Mama,” relying on him equally for advice on stocks, small loans, tickets for friends, and proper material for costumes.

Married three times—each marriage as unusual as the others—Ellen Terry was Irving’s theater partner for twenty years, through twenty-seven productions.

She starred in theatrical productions of Henry Irving, including the role of Lady Macbeth

Source: "Bram Stoker" by Phyllis A. Roth Skidmore College. Twayne Publishers, Boston

#dracula #dracula daily #count dracula #lucy westenra #Ellen Terry #bram stoker

Ellen Terry as Beatrice in 'Much Ado About Nothing' by Window & Grove circa 1891 NPG x16969

#Ellen Terry #Beatrice

Catherine of Aragon On Stage and Screen: Part 1

Sarah Siddons, 18th Century/ Miss Glyn, 19th Century/ Dame Ellen Terry, 1856/ Mrs. Farren, 1859/ Gabrielle Krauss, 1883/ Violet Vanbrugh, 1912/ Hedwig Pauly- Winterstien, 1920/ Theresa Maxwell-Conover, 1922/ Phyllis Nelson-Terry, 1936/ Rosalie Crutchley, 1953.

Works included: Shakespeare’s Henry VIII (18th century, 19th century, 1856, 1859, 1936) , Henry VIII (French Opera, 1883), Henry VIII (silent film, 1912), Anna Boleyn (silent film, 1920), When Knighthood was in Flower (silent film, 1922), The Sword and the Rose (film, 1953)

Ellen Terry as Lady MacBeth

Artist: John Singer Sargent (American, 1856–1925)

Date: 1889

Medium: Oil paint on canvas

Collection: Tate Britain, London, United Kingdom

Description

Ellen Terry was a celebrated British actor, particularly known for playing Shakespearean roles. John Singer Sargent was struck by her appearance at the opening night of a production of Macbeth in 1888. He persuaded Terry to sit for a portrait in the character of Lady Macbeth, inventing the dramatic pose seen here, which did not occur in the production. The pose showcases Terry’s extraordinary dress, designed by Alice Comyns Carr. The flecks of cobalt blue represent the wings of jewel beetles that were stitched into the dress.