Ellen Terry ('Choosing')
- Artist: George Frederic Watts
- Date: 1864
- Medium: oil on strawboard mounted on Gatorfoam
- Dimensions: 18 5/8 in. x 13 7/8 in. (472 mm x 352 mm) overall
- Portrays: Dame Ellen Alice Terry
- Museum: The National Portrait Gallery
- Collection record: The National Portrait Gallery website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
In front of you stands George Frederic Watts’ portrait “Ellen Terry (‘Choosing’)”, painted in oil on strawboard and mounted on Gatorfoam. The sitter’s profile is lit by a soft oval light, pulling the eye to her left hand where a small bunch of violets rests beside her finger; she leans toward a cluster of camellias that frame her face with deep green leaves. Her wedding dress—brown silk that today appears greenish—is worn over an under‑garment of pale white. The brushwork in the flowers shows careful rendering, each petal slightly raised to give volume.
Watts captured the actress at just 17, fresh from her stage debut in 1856, while his own life was beginning a new chapter—he had married her two years earlier. In Victorian England the choice between camellias and violets became an allegory of worldly vanities versus innocence, a motif Watts used often to highlight the sitter’s youth.
See it in person
Ellen Terry ('Choosing') is in the collection of The National Portrait Gallery at St Martin's Place, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
