The Strand Magazine/Volume 1/Issue 5/Portraits of Celebrities
Portraits of Celebrities at different times of their Lives.
WILSON BARRETT.
Born 1846.
 From a Photo. by Window & Grove. |
 From a Photo. by J. Thomson. |
R. WILSON BARRETT, who is the son of a gentleman who farmed his own estate in Essex, received his education at a private school. During his school-days, at the age of thirteen, he one night spent his only sixpence in visiting the gallery of the Princess's Theatre, where Charles Kean was playing Hamlet; and he has himself described how he was therewith fired with two ambitions—to play Hamlet, and to marry Miss Heath, a charming actress who was appearing in the piece—and how he afterwards achieved both objects. His first appearance as the Prince of Denmark took place in 1884, on the very stage on which he had first seen the character performed. At twenty-two, the age of our first portrait, Mr. Wilson Barrett was studying his art in that great school for actors—the provincial stage. At the present day, as represented in our second portrait, his fine features are well known to every playgoer, as equally adapted to the picturesque melancholy of the Silver King, the classical countenance of Claudian, or the boyish and pathetic beauty of the Chatterton of seventeen.
For these portraits we are indebted to the kindness of Mr. Wilson Barrett.
SIR PROVO WALLIS.
Born 1791.
Age 22.
From a Painting.
IR PROVO WILLIAM PARRY WALLIS, R.N.,
Age 100.
From a Photograph.
G.C.B., Senior Admiral of the Fleet, was a hundred years of age on the 12th of last month. Sir Provo, now the oldest naval officer alive, was born at Halifax, in Nova Scotia. At thirteen he fought his first engagement, at seventeen was made lieutenant, and went through several fierce encounters with the French. At twenty-two, the age at which our first portrait shows him, he was second lieutenant of the Shannon on the famous day when that gallant vessel was challenged by the American frigate Chesapeake. The ships met; a desperate fight ensued; the captain of the Shannon was disabled, and Lieutenant Wallis was called upon to take command, both of his own ship and of the captured enemy. For his gallantry on this occasion he was made commander. Subsequently he rose to be vice-admiral, admiral, and admiral of the fleet. It is the rule for admirals to retire from active service at the age of seventy; but Sir Provo enjoys the unique honour, which he owes entirely to his reputation as a gallant warrior, of having been retained, by a special Order in Council, on the active list for life. Sir Provo now resides at the village of Funtington, near Chichester, where his striking face and figure, as represented in our second portrait, are familiar to every inhabitant of the place.
For the first of the above portraits we are indebted to the courtesy of Messrs. Brock, of Sydenham.
GEORGE R. SIMS.
Born 1847.
 From a Photograph. |
 From a Photo. by G. & R. Lavis. |
 From a Photograph. |
 From a Photo. by Bassano. |
UR first two portraits represent Mr. George R. Sims before he had become famous, though at sixteen he was already a keen observer of life and character. At twenty-four he was writing for several magazines and papers, and six years later he became a member of the staff of The Referee, under the now celebrated nom de plume of "Dagonet." His first play, "Crutch and Toothpick," was produced in 1879 with great success. Then came, in 1881, "The Lights o' London"—a play which has now been running for ten years.
MR. B. L. FARJEON.
 From a Daguerrotype. |
 From a Photo. by C. Ferrani, Liverpool. |
 From a Photo. by Lock & Whitfield. |
 From a Photo. by The Stereoscopic Co. |
T the age of 17, as he is represented in our first portrait, Mr. Farjeon was already an author, but unknown to fame, his productions, including a full-blown tragedy, "Hakem, the Slave," written when he was 14, being buried in a nest of three drawers by his bedside, which he kept always securely locked. When he was 30, at which age he is represented in our second portrait, he made, with remarkable success, his first essay, a Christmas story, "Shadows on the Snow," which was published in New Zealand, but afterwards, re-written and enlarged, in England. He followed this up with "Grif," and the success of this story and a letter he received from Charles Dickens determined his future career. His third portrait represents him shortly before his marriage with the daughter of Joseph Jefferson. It was after this union that he opened up a new vein by writing
his finest novel, "Great Porter Square." Perhaps no living author has a stronger hold upon the public.
HERR JOACHIM.
Born 1831.
Age 32.
From a Photo. by Mrs. Cameron.
Present Day.
From a Photo. by Messrs. Elliott & Fry.
OSEPH JOACHIM was
born of Jewish parents at Kitsee, a small town near Presburg, Hungary, and
while very young entered the Conservatory of Music at Vienna, where he studied under the celebrated teacher, Joseph Böhm. He was only twelve years old when his master declared that, as a violinist, he had nothing more to learn, and he appeared before a public audience at Leipzig with a success which placed his future great career beyond a doubt. He, however, studied with the utmost assiduity under the direction of Ferdinand David. At thirty-two, the age in which he is depicted in the first of our two portraits, he was Director of the Royal Concert-hall at Hanover, and was about to marry
Amelia Weiss, one of the leading singers of her time, and then chief contralto at the Royal Opera in Hanover. He had already visited most of the
European capitals, and was well known in London, then as now, for the extraordinary technical ability and mastery of his instrument which, combined with the feeling and the insight of a born musician, render him probably the greatest violinist who has ever lived, not even excepting Paganini.
ARTHUR W. PINERO.
Born 1855.
 From a Photo. by I. Schultz, Greenwich. |
 From a Photo. by C. Watkins, London. |
 From a Photo. by R. F. Barnes, New Cross. |
 From a Photo. by Window & Grove. |
HE first portrait of
Mr. Pinero shows him at the age of seven. The second portrait, taken at nineteen, marks an era in his life, for it was in that year he became an actor. At twenty-three he began, as he describes it, "to write little plays." His fourth portrait was taken in 1890, long before which he had firmly established his position as one of the few leading dramatists of the age.
HENRY A. JONES.
Born 1851.
 From a Photo. by Marioni. |
 From a Photo. by The London Portrait Co. |
 From a Photo. by W. & D. Downey. |
 From a Photo. by Elliott & Fry. |
R. HENRY ARTHUR
JONES is the son of a Buckinghamshire farmer, and was born at Granbrough. At
fourteen he had just left school, and entered commercial life at Ramsgate. Strangely enough, Mr. Jones was never in a theatre till he was eighteen. At the age of nineteen he wrote his first play, which has never been acted. Indeed, Mr. Jones was twenty-eight when he made his first bow as a playwright, with "A Clerical Error," at the Court. Then he rose rapidly, and within three years he had earned both fame and fortune by "The Silver King," the production of which marks the date of our third photograph. The subsequent work of Mr. Jones is too well known to need mention here.
MISS MARY RORKE.
 From a Photo. by J. S. Lonsdale. |
 From a Photo. by Elliott & Fry. |
AT the age of six, 
Present Day
From a Photo. by Elliott & Fry.
the age at which she is represented in our first portrait, Miss Mary Rorke had not yet made her appearance on the state, but at eight she played Sybil in "A Sheep in Wolf's Clothing" with an amateur company—which was the rôle, as the readers of our last number will remember, in which little Miss Marion Terry first appeared before the public, and in which
Miss Mary Rorke was equally successful. At eighteen, at which age our second portrait represents her, Miss Rorke was appearing on the London stage as Galatea—the character which has been associated with the names of so many fascinating actresses on their first appearance, and in which, of all others, grace, beauty, and intelligence such as Miss Mary Rorke's tell most effectively. Mrs. Frank St. Aubyn, which is Miss Rorke's married name, has since become well known and popular at many theatres and in many parts.
We are indebted to the kindness of Miss Mary Rorke for permission to reproduce the above interesting series of portraits.