MISS ELLEN TERRY AS LADY MACBETH
By JOHN SINGER SARGENT


MISS ELLEN TERRY AS LADY MACBETH
By JOHN SINGER SARGENT, R.A. (1856-1925)
IN THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON

Mr. Sargent is primarily a portrait painter, a branch of his art which attracted him in his student days and has since gained him renown, not merely for the technical power of his work but for the deep insight into character which is revealed in his canvases, His father was a Boston physician, but he was born in Florence, where, in an atmosphere of artistic culture, he spent his youth. When he went to Paris at the age of twenty, to study in the studio of Carolus Duran, he signalised his arrival by producing an admirable portrait of his teacher. Two years later he proceeded to Spain, where he passed several agreeable months, during which he came under the spell of Velazquez, who has inspired him ever since. Traces of the Spanish painter's influence may generally be found in his portraits, though allied to an individual insight which belongs to Mr. Sargent himself, and makes his work original while it adapts the methods of the Master's style.

This picture, once the property of the late Sir Henry Irving, was presented to the nation by Sir Joseph Duveen in 1906, Miss Terry wears the costume designed for Sir Henry Irving's revival of Macbeth at the Lyceum Theatre - a robe of metallic blue, the long green sleeves decorated with iridescent beetle wings. Her arms are raised above her red-gold hair, while in her hands she holds the crown of Duncan.

The portrait painter has paid full justice to the character portrayed by the actress, and has skilfully subordinated the rich colouring of the design to the expression of the face, which arrests the eye at once and compels the interest of the spectator before he turns his attention to the beauties of the picture as a whole.

From the book "Famous Paintings" Volume 2 printed in 1913.

Large files of this public domain print are available at Stock Photos at Songs of Praise
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Online "Name the Painting"









John Singer Sargent
biography at Olga's Gallery

John Singer Sargent
at the ArtChive

John Singer Sargent
links at ArtCyclopedia

John Singer Sargent
complete works

John Singer Sargent
at the National Gallery of Art


Famous Paintings in this Series





James Archer
My Great Grandmother


Bashkirtseff
The Meeting


Bouguereau
Charity


John Brett
From the Dorsetshire Cliffs


Arnesby Brown
The River Bank


Joseph Clark
Mother's Darling


John Constable
The Hay-Wain


Jean Baptiste Camille
Corot
The Fisherman's Hut


Jean Baptiste Camille
Corot
A Flood


Leonardo Da Vinci
Monna Lisa


Edouard Detaille
The Dream


Henri Fantin-Latour
Flowers


Thomas Gainsborough
Queen Charlotte


Thomas Gainsborough
The Market Cart


Jean Baptiste Greuze
The Head of a Girl


Jean Baptiste Greuze
Fidelity


James Clark Hook
Home With the Tide


Alfred William Hunt
Windsor Castle


Josef Israels
The Shipwrecked Mariner


B.W. Leader
The Stream in Summer-time


Madame Vigee Le Brun
Portrait of the Artist

Alphonse Legros
A Canal With a Fisherman


Anton Mauve
Watering Horses


J.L.E. Meissonier
The Cavalier


Sir J.E. Millais
Speak! Speak!


Sir J.E. Mallais
My First Sermon


George Morland
The Reckoning


George Morland
The Inside of a Stable


Murillo
The Immaculate Conception
of the Virgin


Alfred Parsons
When Nature Painted
All Things Gay


Ralph Peacock
The Sisters


Rembrandt
Syndics of the
Cloth Merchants' Guild


Guido Reni
"Ecce Homo"


Sir Joshua Reynolds
Portrait of Mrs. Richard Hoare
With Her Infant Son


Briton Riviere
The Temptation
in the Wilderness


Dante Gabriel
Rossetti
Day Dreams


John Singer Sargent
Miss Ellen Terry
as Lady Macbeth


Lady Stanley
(Dorothy Tennant)
His First Offence


Jan Steen
Grace Before Meat


Marcus Stone
On the Road from
Waterloo to Paris


Constant Troyon
Watering Cattle


H.S. Tuke
"All Hands to the Pumps"


Velazquez
King Philip IV. of Spain


S.E. Waller
Sweethearts and Wives


Thomas Webster
The Smile

Index
Famous Paintings Volume 1
Art Gallery

Index
Famous Paintings Volume 2
Art Gallery

Index
Art Appreciation
Lessons