Further to my previous post, which focused on the newly completed Jewel
Beetle Woman (Sternocera aequisignata) I now present my Muse: Dame Ellen Terry (1847-1928) as Lady Macbeth, a role she
famously performed on the West End of London in 1888. Amongst the crowd on
opening night was the painter John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) who later persuaded her to sit for him. An eye witness to Terry’s arrival at
Sargent’s Chelsea studio was none other than Oscar Wilde, who remarked: “The
street that on a wet and dreary morning has vouchsafed the vision of Lady Macbeth
in full regalia magnificently seated in a four-wheeler can never again be as
other streets: it must always be full of wonderful possibilities."
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| Left: John Singer Sargent, Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth, 1888, oil on
canvas, 221.0 x 114.3 cm. Collection: Tate Right: The Beetle Dress, designed by Alice-Comyns-Carr and constructed by Ada Nettleship: restored to its former glory. Collection: Ellen Terry Museum, Smallhythe Place |
Alice Comyns-Carr designed the gown, which you can read about HERE. Ada
Nettleship crocheted it from a combination of soft green wool and blue tinsel
yarn from Bohemia that was primarily intended to evoke chain mail, whilst also
suggesting the scales of a serpent. The dress was sewn with 1000 iridescent
wings from the green Jewel Beetle Sternocera aequisignata.
Terry kept the ‘beetle dress’ for the rest of her life and sometimes wore it on special occasions. The gown now resides in the permanent collection of the Ellen Terry Museum, Smallhythe Place, near Tenterden in Kent, UK. I first visited this beautiful museum, which was formerly Terry’s home, in the mid-1970s and returned in 2011, soon after a major restoration of the gown had been undertaken. You can learn about it HERE and HERE.
