Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth

On the 29th of December 1888, Ellen Terry opened as Lady Macbeth at the Lyceum Theatre in London, in a production by the actor-manager Henry Irving. Her gown was the sensation of the night: emerald silk sewn with more than a thousand iridescent wing-cases of jewel beetles, so that it shimmered green and blue under the gaslight like the scales of a snake. Sargent saw it and began this portrait almost at once. He shows Terry lifting the crown above her head with both hands, a gesture that appears nowhere in the play, her red hair falling against the beetle-green dress. Irving loved the picture and hung it in the Beefsteak Room, where he entertained after performances at the Lyceum.