Later Victorian Portraits Catalogue
Dame Marie Tempest (Mary Susan Etherington) (1864-1942), Actress
- Gallery portraits
- All known portraits
- Biography and References
Actress and singer; born Mary Susan Etheringon 15 July 1864 in London. Trained in singing in Paris and at Royal Academy of Music, London; married musician Alfred Izard 1885 (divorced 1889); debut under stage name Marie Tempest in operetta, London 1885, followed by star role in Dorothy (1887–9) and other musical comedies; toured North America 1890–94; married actor-playwright Cosmo Charles Gordon-Lennox 1899 (widowed 1921); switched to straight acting in a succession of long-running comedies, including plays by J.M. Barrie and Somerset Maugham; overseas tours 1904, 1909–11 and 1914–21; married Australian actor William Graham Browne 1922; appeared in four early films, and in inter-war plays by Noël Coward, A.A. Milne and Dodie Smith; helped found actors’ Equity 1934; DBE 1937; died 15 October 1942 in London.
A petite brunette, with an excellent voice, pert personality and superb stagecraft, Tempest was popular with audiences, but described her youthful self as ‘a self-important little baggage with a hot temper’ who was disliked by managers. [1] A highly disciplined performer, she was exacting and perfectionist; offstage she could be demanding and aloof, but a fellow-actor ‘never encountered anything but kindness, understanding and indeed a very warm affection … when I hear people criticise her as a woman or as an actress, I will have none of it’. He continued:
When I came to know her, Marie Tempest was no longer beautiful, but she had the tremendous attraction of vivacity and piquancy – ‘a rogue in porcelain’ was the classic description. Above all, she had the most wonderful sparkling eyes that could change in an instant from kittenish mischief to that basilisk stare of disapproval. She wore clothes beautifully and had an unusually long, elegant stride for so small a woman, and truly regal bearing. [2]
Dr Jan Marsh
A petite brunette, with an excellent voice, pert personality and superb stagecraft, Tempest was popular with audiences, but described her youthful self as ‘a self-important little baggage with a hot temper’ who was disliked by managers. [1] A highly disciplined performer, she was exacting and perfectionist; offstage she could be demanding and aloof, but a fellow-actor ‘never encountered anything but kindness, understanding and indeed a very warm affection … when I hear people criticise her as a woman or as an actress, I will have none of it’. He continued:
When I came to know her, Marie Tempest was no longer beautiful, but she had the tremendous attraction of vivacity and piquancy – ‘a rogue in porcelain’ was the classic description. Above all, she had the most wonderful sparkling eyes that could change in an instant from kittenish mischief to that basilisk stare of disapproval. She wore clothes beautifully and had an unusually long, elegant stride for so small a woman, and truly regal bearing. [2]
Dr Jan Marsh
Referencesback to top
Baron 2006Baron, W., Sickert: Paintings and Drawings, New Haven and London, 2006.
Bolitho 1935
Bolitho, H., Older People, London, 1935.
Bolitho 1936
Bolitho, H., Marie Tempest: A Biography, London, 1936.
Browse 1956
Browse, L., William Nicholson, London, 1956.
Clarke 2012
Clarke, M., ‘Sex and the City: The Metropolitan New Woman’, in H. Bonett, Y. Holt and Jennifer Mundy, eds, The Camden Town Group in Context, London, 2012.
Daniels 2006
Daniels, R., ‘Newly Discovered Photographic Sources for Walter Sickert’s Theatre Painting of the 1930s’, Burlington Magazine, April 2006, pp.274–6.
Gray 2004
Gray, F., ‘Tempest, Dame Marie (1864–1942)’, ODNB, Oxford, 2004.
Morgan 1980
Morgan, T., Somerset Maugham, London, 1980.
Napier & Bigwood 2015
Napier, A., and J. Bigwood, Not Just Batman’s Butler: The Autobiography of Alan Napier, Jefferson, NC, 2015.
Nicholson 1996
Nicholson, A., ed., William Nicholson, Painter: Paintings, Woodcuts, Writings, Photographs, London, 1996.
[North] 1923
S.K.N. [North, S.K.], William Nicholson, Contemporary British Artists series, London, 1923.
Raphael 1976
Raphael, F., W. Somerset Maugham and His World, London, 1976.
Reed 2011
Reed, P., William Nicholson: Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, London and New Haven, 2011.
Steen 1943
Steen, M., William Nicholson, London, 1943.
Wedmore 1909
Wedmore, F., Some of the Moderns, London, 1909.