Dame Ellen Terry (1847-1928) as 'Mistress Page' in William Shakespeare's 'The Merry Wives of Windsor'
Pamela Colman Smith (Pimlico 1878 - Bude 1951)
Category
Art / Prints
Date
1902
Materials
Paper
Measurements
315 x 240 mm
Order this imageCollection
Smallhythe Place, Kent
NT 1118414
Caption
Pamela (Pixie) Colman Smith was an artist, illustrator and occultist. She is best known for her writings on Jamaican folklore and her illustrations for the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck, the most widely used in the world. Born in London, Colman Smith and her family lived in Manchester, Jamaica and Brooklyn. Aged 15, she enrolled at the Pratt Institute in New York, but her mother’s death and her own ill health meant that she left before completing her studies. She returned to England and became part of the Lyceum Theatre company, working on costume and set designs. It was led by Ellen Terry (1847–1928), who gave Pixie her nickname, Henry Irving (1838–1905) and Bram Stoker (1847–1912). In 1901 she joined the Golden Dawn, a fashionable occult group, where she met the poet Arthur E. Waite, who commissioned her to illustrate a tarot deck. Its popularity was in a large part due to her designs. In 1904 she established the Green Sheaf Press, which mainly published work by women writers, including her own 1905 collection of Jamaican folk tales, Chim-Chim Stories. She also illustrated Terry’s book The Russian Ballet in 1913. Colman Smith was described in a 1912 article as possessing a ‘strange and vivid individuality’. She was probably biracial and queer, and it has been argued that she humoured, or even embraced, the marginalised position in which others placed her. By frequently depicting herself in Japanese costume, she played into the speculation surrounding her cultural background. Colman Smith experienced a form of synaesthesia that meant she could see music, and she created paintings of these visions. They captured the interest of influential avant-garde New York gallerist Alfred Stieglitz (1864–1946), who held several exhibitions of her work – the first by a non-photographer to be shown at his Photo-Secession Gallery. The collection at Smallhythe Place, Kent, includes many works by Colman Smith, particularly hand-coloured prints made from her original drawings that feature Ellen Terry. There are also personal items, presumably given as gifts to Terry, including a hand-illustrated book of verse, Ellen Peg’s Merry Book of Joys, and other handmade objects, such as a joyful mermaid doll (NT 1119033).
Summary
Print, coloured, Dame Ellen Terry (1847-1928) as 'Mistress Page' in William Shakespeare's 'The Merry Wives of Windsor' by Pamela Colman Smith (Pimlico 1877 - Bude 1925). Annotated by Ellen Terry and signed 'You are merry - so am I- Ha Ha' 1902'.
Marks and inscriptions
'You are merry. so am I. Ha Ha' / Ellen Terry / 1902 / Mistress Page (inscribed on front)
Makers and roles
Pamela Colman Smith (Pimlico 1878 - Bude 1951), artist
References
Conroy, Rachel, Women Artists and Designers at the National Trust, 2025, pp. 170-1