From the personal collection of the renowned 19th and early 20th century sculptor William Ordway Partridge, Henry Irving's friend and frequent visitor and correspondent. A rare original cabinet photograph circa 1895 of Henry Irving, the greatest British actor of his generation and the first actor to be knighted. Future Dracula author Bram Stoker was Irving's Acting Manager, and Dracula was based on Henry Irving. Irving alternated Othello and Iago with Edwin Booth, with Ellen Terry as their Desdemona. Light wear otherwise good. See Henry Irving's extraordinary biography below.
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From Wikipedia:
Sir Henry Irving (6 February 1838 – 13 October 1905), born John Henry Brodribb, sometimes known as J. H. Irving, was an English stage actor in the Victorian era, known as an actor-manager because he took complete responsibility (supervision of sets, lighting, direction, casting, as well as playing the leading roles) for season after season at the Lyceum Theatre, establishing himself and his company as representative of English classical theatre. In 1895 he became the first actor to be awarded a knighthood, indicating full acceptance into the higher circles of British society.
Irving is widely acknowledged to be one of the inspirations for Count Dracula, the title character of the 1897 novel Dracula whose author, Bram Stoker, was business manager of the theatre.
Irving was born to a working-class family in Keinton Mandeville in the county of Somerset.[1] W.H. Davies, the celebrated poet, was a cousin. Irving spent his childhood living with his aunt, Mrs Penberthy, at Halsetown in Cornwall. He competed in a recitation contest at a local Methodist chapel where he was bested by William Curnow, later the editor of The Sydney Morning Herald.[2] He attended City Commercial School for two years before going to work in the office of a law firm at age 13. When he saw Samuel Phelps play Hamlet soon after this, he sought lessons, letters of introduction, and work in a theatre in Sunderland in 1856, labouring against great odds until his 1871 success in The Bells in London set him apart from all the rest.
He married Florence O'Callaghan on 15 July 1869 at St. Marylebone, London, but his personal life took second place to his professional life. On opening night of The Bells, 25 November 1871, Florence, who was pregnant with their second child, criticised his profession: "Are you going on making a fool of yourself like this all your life?" Irving exited their carriage at Hyde Park Corner, walked off into the night, and chose never to see her again. He maintained a discreet distance from his children as well, but became closer to them as they grew older. Florence Irving never divorced Irving, and once he had been knighted she styled herself "Lady Irving"; Irving never remarried.[3]
His elder son, Harry Brodribb Irving (1870–1919), usually known as "H B Irving", became a famous actor and later a theatre manager. His younger son, Laurence Irving (1871–1914), became a dramatist and later drowned, with his wife, in the sinking of the Empress of Ireland. H B married Dorothea Baird and they had a son, Laurence Irving (1897–1988), who became a well-known Hollywood art director and his grandfather's biographer.
In November 1882 Irving became a Freemason, being initiated into the prestigious Jerusalem Lodge No 197 in London.[4] In 1887 he became a founder member and first Treasurer of the Savage Club Lodge No 2190,[5] a Lodge associated with London's Savage Club.
He eventually took over the management of the Lyceum Theatre and brought actress Ellen Terry into partnership with him as Ophelia to his Hamlet, Lady Macbeth to his Macbeth, Portia to his Shylock, Beatrice to his Benedick, etc. Before joining the Lyceum, Terry had fled her first marriage and conceived two out-of-wedlock children with architect-designer Edward William Godwin, but regardless of how much and how often her behavior defied the strict morality expected by her Victorian audiences, she somehow remained popular. It could be said that Irving found his family in his professional company, which included his ardent supporter and manager Bram Stoker and Terry's two illegitimate children, Teddy and Edy.
Whether Irving's long, spectacularly successful relationship with leading lady Ellen Terry was romantic as well as professional has been the subject of much historical speculation. Most of their correspondence was lost or burned by her descendants.[6] According to Michael Holroyd's book about Irving and Terry, A Strange Eventful History:
Terry's son Teddy, later known as Edward Gordon Craig, spent much of his childhood (from 1879, when he was 8, until 1897) indulged by Irving backstage at the Lyceum. Craig, who came to be regarded as something of a visionary for the theatre of the future, wrote an especially vivid, book-length tribute to Irving. ("Let me state at once, in clearest unmistakable terms, that I have never known of, or seen, or heard, a greater actor than was Irving.") George Bernard Shaw, at the time a theatre critic who was jealous of Irving's connection to Ellen Terry (whom Shaw himself wanted in his own plays), conceded Irving's genius after Irving died.
William Ordway Partridge (April 11, 1861 – May 22, 1930) was an American sculptor, teacher and author. Among his best-known works are the Shakespeare Monument in Chicago, the equestrian statue of General Grant in Brooklyn, the Pietà at St. Patrick's Cathedral, Manhattan, and the Pocahontas statue in Jamestown, Virginia.
He was born in Paris, the younger son of George Sidney Partridge, Jr. and Helen Derby Catlin.[2] His father was the Paris representative for the New York City department store A.T. Stewart.[2] His mother was a cousin of the painter George Catlin.[2] His brother, Sidney Catlin Partridge, became a bishop of the Episcopal Church.[2]
Education
Partridge's family returned to New York City in 1868, and enrolled him in Cheshire Academy in Connecticut, followed by Adelphi Academy in Brooklyn.[2] He entered Columbia University in autumn 1881, but had to withdraw because of poor health.[1] He traveled to Europe in 1882,[2] and studied in Florence in the studio of Fortunato Galli,[1] where he became friends with the young Bernard Berenson.[3] Although he never formally enrolled at the Ecole de Beaux-Arts, he audited classes there in autumn 1883, and studied briefly in the Paris studio of sculptor Antonin Mercié.[1] He returned to New York City in Spring 1884, and enrolled in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.[1] He appeared in a New York City production of David Copperfield,[2] and moved to Boston, where he supported himself by giving dramatic readings of Shakespeare and the Romantic poets.[1] He continued to sculpt, and received encouragement in this from his cousin, the sculptor John Rogers.[1]
In 1887, he married Augusta Merriam, a wealthy widow from Milton, Massachusetts, who was 15 years older.[1] They traveled to Europe that year, where he studied briefly in the Paris studio of painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau. There he formed a close friendship with the neo-Gothic architect Ralph Adams Cram.[4] The couple moved to Rome, where he studied in the studio of Polish sculptor Pio Welonski.[1] They returned to Milton, Massachusetts in 1889, where he established his own studio.[1]
Sculptures
Partridge created two larger-than-life bronze statues of Alexander Hamilton, executed 15 years apart. The first was commissioned by the Hamilton Club of Brooklyn, installed in front of the club's headquarters in Brooklyn Heights, and dedicated on October 4, 1893.[5] For months before and after that dedication, Partridge's full-size plaster model of Hamilton was on exhibition at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.[5] The bronze statue stood in Brooklyn until 1936, when it was relocated to The Grange, Hamilton's country house in northern Manhattan.[5] The second Hamilton statue was commissioned by the Alumni Association of Columbia College [now University].[6] It was installed on campus in front of Hamilton Hall, and dedicated on May 27, 1908.[6] Both Hamilton statues stand in northern Manhattan, less than 1.5 mi (2.4 km) apart.
In 1890, Partridge won a national competition to create a statue of William Shakespeare for Chicago, Illinois.[1] He returned to Paris, where he set up a studio to work on the project.[1] He exhibited his full-size plaster model of Shakespeare at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago,[1] along with nine other works.[a] His bronze Shakespeare was installed in Lincoln Park the following spring, and dedicated on April 23, 1894, the Bard's 330th birthday.[8] Partridge wrote a sonnet for its dedication.[b]
The Equestrian Statue of General Ulysses S. Grant (1895-1896) was Partridge's most colossal work. Commissioned by the Union League Club of Brooklyn, it was installed in the center of Bedford Avenue, in front of the Club's headquarters, and dedicated on April 27, 1896.[10] The bronze horse and rider are approximately 12 ft (3.7 m) in height, and stand upon a granite pedestal approximately 15 ft (4.6 m) in height.[10]
A bequest from Englishman James Smithson (c.1765-1829) funded the creation of the Smithsonian Institution. Partridge was commissioned in 1896 to create a bronze memorial tablet commemorating that bequest for Smithson's gravesite in Genoa, Italy.[c] He based his relief portrait of Smithson on an 1817 relief portrait taken from life by Pierre-Joseph Tiolier (formerly attributed to Antonio Canova).[11] Partridge initially made two casts of the bronze tablet, one for the gravesite and the other for the nearby Protestant Chapel of the Holy Spirit.[12] He made a third bronze cast in 1898 for Smithson's alma mater, Pembrook College, University of Oxford. The gravesite's bronze tablet was stolen, and the chapel's bronze tablet was used as a model for a marble copy, that was installed at the gravesite in 1900.[12] Upon learning that the Genoa cemetery was to be destroyed for the expansion of an adjacent quarry, Alexander Graham Bell, a member of the Smithsonian's Board of Regents, proposed that Smithson's remains be brought to the United States.[13] In 1904, Smithson's remains and grave monument were relocated to the Crypt of the Smithsonian's Castle Building in Washington, D.C.[13] The 1900 marble copy of Partridge's tablet was part of that move.[12] The Chapel of the Holy Spirit was destroyed by Allied bombing during World War II. A marble copy of Partridge's tablet was carved in 1963, and stands today at the site of the chapel.[12]
Partridge's most famous religious work is the larger-than-life Pietà he created for St. Patrick's Cathedral, Manhattan. The dead Christ is collapsed before a seated Mary, who cradles his face with her hand. Critic Robert Burns Wilson wrote a sensitive appreciation of the work.[d] Carved from white Carrara marble, Pietà is located in the Ambulatory behind the High Altar.[15]
The Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities commissioned Partridge to create a larger-than-life bronze statue of Pocahontas, the Native American princess, for the 1907 Jamestown Exposition in Norfolk, Virginia.[16] The exposition commemorated the 300th anniversary of the founding of the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. Pocahontus stood in front of the Administration Building for the exposition, and APVA later loaned the statue to the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.[16] APVA donated the statue to Jamestown, where it was re-dedicated on June 3, 1922.[16] Queen Elizabeth II visited Jamestown in 1957 for the 350th anniversary, and was charmed by the statue. Her reaction inspired a posthumous replica to be cast, which was presented by the Governor of Virginia as a gift to the British people. Dedicated on October 5, 1958, the bronze replica was installed outside St. George's, Gravesend, the English church in which Pocahontas had been interred in 1617.[17]
Teacher
Partridge lectured at the National Social Science Association, the Concord School of Philosophy, and the Brooklyn Institute.[2] From 1897 to 1903, he lectured at what is now George Washington University, in Washington, D.C.,[2] and went on to lecture at Stanford University in California.
He wrote a manual on sculpting: Technique of Sculpture (1895).
Partridge's studio was at 15 West 38th Street, Manhattan. Lee Lawrie was among his studio assistants.
Personal
Partridge and Augusta Merriam had a daughter together, also named Augusta (d. 1916). The couple divorced in 1904.[1]
On June 14, 1905 he married the poet Margaret Ridgely Schott.[18]: p. xxx They had a daughter together, also named Margaret.[e]
Partridge died in Manhattan, New York City, on May 22, 1930.