Drawing

This portrait of the actor-manager Sir Henry Irving (1838-1905) shows him as he appeared in the title role of Hamlet by William Shakespeare (1564-1616). Irving first performed the role of Hamlet in 1874 and four years later the same play marked the commencement of Irving’s management of the Lyceum Theatre, London, and his acting partnership with Ellen Terry (1847-1928), who played Ophelia.

This image of Irving was painted by the artist Pamela Coleman Smith and she has signed the portrait with her characteristic mark of an interlaced P, C and S in the top left hand corner.