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Portia by John Everett Millais

John Everett Millais · 1886-01-01

This is 'Portia' by John Everett Millais, painted in 1886. For the better part of a century, it was believed to be a portrait of Ellen Terry, the most celebrated Shakespearean actress of her era. Terry had worn this specific crimson costume onstage as Portia in The Merchant of Venice, and the likeness was so convincing that the mistake held for decades.

Look at the face. Millais places her eyes just off-center, not quite meeting yours. She is thinking, not performing. The documents in her hands encode the whole plot: Portia enters the trial disguised as a lawyer, and the firm grip on that folded scroll tells you she already knows her next move. Every passage of velvet in the robe is a late-career flex by Millais, oil paint pushed to behave like deep pile fabric absorbing and throwing light.

The sitter was in fact Kate Dolan, a model who posed wearing Terry's theatrical attire. The connection to Terry was so strong that her identity overwrote the model's for decades. Research eventually set the record straight, but the painting remains a double portrait. The costume belongs to one woman, the face to another.

A painting that looks like one person but contains two. Have you ever learned something about a portrait that changed who you thought you were looking at?

Details

For decades, everyone agreed: this was the actress Ellen Terry.
For decades, everyone agreed: this was the actress Ellen Terry.
The costume belonged to her most celebrated role.
The costume belonged to her most celebrated role.
She holds the legal documents that will decide the trial.
She holds the legal documents that will decide the trial.
But the woman inside the dress is not Ellen Terry.
But the woman inside the dress is not Ellen Terry.
She borrowed a star's costume and became a portrait that fooled the world.
She borrowed a star's costume and became a portrait that fooled the world.
Transcript

For decades, everyone agreed: this was the actress Ellen Terry. The costume belonged to her most celebrated role. It was worn onstage as Portia, the brilliant lawyer of Venice. She holds the legal documents that will decide the trial. But the woman inside the dress is not Ellen Terry. Her name was Kate Dolan. A model, not an actress. She borrowed a star's costume and became a portrait that fooled the world.