The Strand Magazine/Volume 1/Issue 4/Portraits of Celebrities

The Strand Magazine, Volume 1, Issue 4
edited by George Newnes
Portraits of Celebrities at different times of their Lives
Earl Granville. G. F. Watts, R.A. Sir John Everett Millais, Bart., R.A. Sir Richard Everard Webster. Miss Marion Terry. William Terriss. Charles Bradlaugh. Henry Pettitt.
4030479The Strand Magazine, Volume 1, Issue 4 — Portraits of Celebrities at different times of their LivesGeorge Newnes

Portraits of Celebrities at different times of their Lives.

EARL GRANVILLE.

Born 1815.


Age 37.
From a Painting by R. Lehmann.


Present Day.
From a Photo. by Messrs. Elliott & Fry.

AT the age of thirty-seven, as our first portrait shows him, Earl Granville, who had succeeded to the peerage six years earlier, and who had already been for four years Vice-President of the Board of Trade, had just obtained a seat in the Cabinet, and succeeded Lord Palmerston at the Foreign Office. Since that time Lord Granville has filled almost every office of importance in successive Liberal Governments. He is moreover, as everybody knows, one of Her Majesty's most confidential friends and counsellors. No Royal ceremony, whether a marriage, a christening, or a funeral, is complete without his well-known dignified, yet genial presence; and he has probably attended more ceremonies of this kind, at different Courts of Europe, than any other person now alive.

G. F. WATTS, R.A.

Born 1820.

AGE 17.
From a Painting by G. F. Watts.
AGE 47.
From a Photo. by Mrs. Cameron.
AGE 21.
From a Painting.
AGE 68.
From a Photo. by Messrs. Cameron & Smith.


OUR portraits of Mr. G. F. Watts depict him at most interesting ages. The first was painted at seventeen by Mr. Watts himself, at which age his first picture was exhibited at the Royal Academy. At twenty-one, he had painted his first great historical picture; while at forty-seven, the age of our third portrait, he had just received the title of R.A.

SIR JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS, BART., R.A.

Born 1827.

AGE 22.
From a Photograph.
AGE 40.
From a Photograph.


Present Day.
From a Photo. by Messrs. Window & Grove.

ALTHOUGH our first portrait shows Sir John Millais at the early age of twenty-two, he was already an important figure in the world of Art; for he had gained his first medal at the Society of Arts when only nine, and had, like Mr. Watts, exhibited his first picture in the Royal Academy at seventeen. At the age of this portrait he had founded, with Holman Hunt and D. G. Rossetti, the famous Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, of which the object was to depict Nature, not as tinged by the imagination, but as they really saw it; a movement which was at first received with the most violent abuse, but which, greatly owing to the eloquent support of Mr. Ruskin, at last made good its way. Two years later he was elected A.R.A., and ten years afterwards, R.A. At the age depicted in our second portrait he was known, as he is still, as a painter without rival in range, manliness, and vigour, and in bold and masterly brush-work. In the year 1885 the Queen marked her sense of his commanding abilities by conferring upon him the honour of a baronetcy.

SIR RICHARD EVERARD WEBSTER.

Born 1842.

AGE 17.
From a Photo. by Mautl & Co.
AGE 32.
From a Photo. by Hills & Saunders.
AGE 22.
From a Photo. by Mayland, Cambridge.
PRESENT DAY.
From a Photo. by Hughes & Mullins, Ryde.

SIR RICHARD WEBSTER at seventeen, the age of our first portrait, was leaving the Charterhouse School for Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was greatly distinguished as an athlete, and where he won the two miles race against Oxford. Our second portrait shows him at this period, in his running costume. At thirty-two, as in our third portrait, he had already so distinguished himself at the Bar that two years later he was made a Q.C., at the earliest age on record. The brilliance of Sir Richard's subsequent career is well known. It may interest our readers to be told that some portraits, at a country house, of Sir Richard at various stages of his life, first suggested to the Editor the notion of this series, which has proved so popular.

For the above photographs we are indebted to the kindness of Sir Richard Webster.

MISS MARION TERRY.

AGE 6.
From a Daguerrotype.
AGE 24.
From a Photograph.
AGE 18.
From a Photograph.
PRESENT DAY.
From a Photo. by Alfred Ellis.

MISS MARION TERRY is a clever member of a clever family, and her ability developed itself early. Already at the age of six (as in the first portrait above given) she was appearing in the part of little Sybil in Tom Taylor's play, "A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing.' This childish effort was followed up by others more successful still, and, at the age at which our second portrait represents her, she had made a strong impression, as a mature actress, in the exacting part of Ophelia. Then she appeared in several of Mr. W. S. Gilbert's dramas, as Dorothy in "Dan'l Druce," and as Galatea in "Pygmalion and Galatea." Since that time Miss Marion Terry has played many parts, and with the same unvarying success, in which her natural capacity is aided by her grace of action and the striking charm of her appearance.

WILLIAM TERRISS.

Born 1849.

AGE 9.
From a Daguerrotype.
AGE 30.
From a Photograph.
AG£ 21.
From a Photograph.
AGE 42.
From a Photo. by Conby, Boston.

AT nine years old, William Lewin (for Terriss is only a stage name, and the popular actor is in reality the son of Mr. Herbert Lewin, the barrister, and a nephew of George Grote, the celebrated Greek historian) was at school at Dr. Grix's, Littlehampton. He afterwards had several years' experience first as a sheep-farmer in South America, and then in North America as a horse-breeder; but at the age of our second portrait he had returned to England, and had appeared upon the stage in the part of Nicholas Nickleby at the Adelphi. From that time his success was certain, and has ever since been growing. At thirty, Mr. Terriss was playing Captain Molyneux in the "Shaughraun," with Dion Boucicault, on the first production of that play in England. Our last portrait shows him as Mr. Irving's chief supporter, and, now as ever, an immense favourite with his brother professionals. Mr. Terriss holds the medal of the Royal Humane Society for saving life at sea.

We are indebted to the courtesy of Mr. Terriss for permission to reproduce these photographs.

CHARLES BRADLAUGH.

Born 1833.


AGE 19.
From a Photo. by Marsters, Nottingham.

AGE 57.
From a Photo. by Messrs. Elliott & Fry.

AT the age of nineteen Mr. Bradlaugh,
Age 38.
From a Photo. by Van Loo.
after having been successively errand-boy, coal dealer, Sunday school teacher, and lecturer, had enlisted in the 7th Dragoon Guards, and had served for a time in Ireland. He then became orderly-room clerk, obtained his discharge, and took a situation as clerk to a solicitor in London. Soon, however, he began to write and lecture, and before the age at which our second portrait shows him, he was known throughout the country for the opinions which it was the business of his life to advocate. And erroneous as many of those opinions doubtless were, and fierce as was the opposition which they excited, no one would now venture to dispute his earnestness, his remarkable ability, or the goodness of his heart.

HENRY PETTITT.

Born 1853.

AGE 3
From a Photo. by Samuel A. Walker.
AGE 28.
From a Photo. by Bertin, Brighton.
AGE 21.
From a Photo. by T. Coleman.
AGE 38.
From a Photo. by Samuel A. Walker.

OF Mr. Henry Pettit, at the age of three, we have nothing to recount; but at fourteen he ran away from school to Sadler's Wells Theatre, obtained an engagement, went on the stage as an Irish boy armed with a shillelagh, broke the head of a utility actor, and got a drubbing which left him senseless. After this taste of stage-life he obtained an engagement as an usher at the North London Collegiate School, a post which he was holding at the age of our second portrait. But all this while he was writing poems, sketches, and burlesque lectures, and finally, in collaboration with Paul Meritt, he wrote his first play, British Born, which was a grand success. Since then he has produced innumerable dramas, and, as a master of construction and as a realistic writer, he has probably no equal at the present day.