It was Burton's normal practice to execute numerous studies before making decisions about a final composition. n early preliminary pencil study for this picture in a private Canadian collection differs somewhat from the final composition chosen. If the finished watercolour was completed in 1845, however, it is unusual that he chose not to exhibit it in London until much later. Burton exhibited Miss Helen Faucit [no. 888] and Miss Helen Faucit a sketch [no. 909] at the Royal Academy in 1849. The first must be the finished watercolour now in Edinburgh and the second the watercolour study now the National Gallery of Ireland at in Dublin. Perhaps the watercolour study was completed in 1845 but the finished watercolour not until 1848?

The performance of Helen Faucit as Antigone was hailed as a tour de force in Irish theatrical circles. Irish critics had called her performance “this faultless impersonation of the Greek heroine” (Martin 169). Faucit first appeared in Dublin in her role as Antigone in a new translation of Sophocles’ tragedy on February 23, 1845. In March 1845 an address signed by members of the Royal Irish Academy, academics from Trinity College, Dublin, as well as a number of artists was announced in the newspaper The Nation. A broach was also commissioned, designed by Burton, to accompany the address. Because of the costly and elaborate nature of the workmanship involved the broach took some time to complete and wasn’t presented to the actress until the following year.

Helena Saville Faucit was one of the most renowned actresses of her day. Faucit’s performance as Antigone must have particularly impressed Burton for him to vividly remember it in 1890, forty-five years later. Burton commented:

To have seen Helen Faucit play the part of Antigone in the tragedy of Sophocles, so named, was an experience to leave an ineffaceable impression on the mind. Her interpretation of that character, the capability she showed of throwing herself at once into the spirit of Greek art — so different in many respects from that of the more modern drama — has always seemed to me to afford the most striking proof of her genius. In an English play the actor, whatever his peculiar gifts, may and must study his part as it was written in his own native tongue; and we who listen to his delivery may at least hear the words of Shakespeare as the poet himself penned them. Merely to hear them uttered goes far with us to compensate for even indifferent acting. But Miss Faucit, with no knowledge of the Greek original, with nothing better to inspire and guide her than a paraphrastic 'Imitative Version' (as the 'adapter' called it) of the tragedy, intuitively divined the Attic poet's intent, and revealed to our wondering mind and eye the heroic figure he had created. We witnessed that reserved force, that restrained passion, which distinguishes the higher productions of Hellenic art in all its forms. No loud voicing or unneeded gesticulation disturbed the rhythmic movement of the action throughout. All the deeper was the pathos. We were elevated into an ideal region. We were made to feel the existence of an inexorable Fate, whose doom is indeed inevitable, and yet powerless to daunt the human soul that is true to itself. It must at the same time be noted that, besides the imaginative faculty, which is the one indispensable element in a great actor. Miss Faucit was endowed with pre-eminent physical advantages. Her height; a length of limb surpassing the common proportions of the female form, and, in the arms, united with an equally unusual straightness, lent a natural dignity to her gait, and an inborn grace to every movement and gesture, such as no training could have improved, and the want of which no study or artifice could supply. Her head was nobly balanced on a pillar-like neck. Seen in profile, the remarkable expanse between the front of the face and the finely set ear, the length from the chin to the throat, the beautiful outward curve of the full and pliant lip, all called vividly to mind the Greek ideal known to us in sculpture and in designs on the finer Athenian vases. To those mobile lips was largely due the rich and distinct articulation of a voice of singular sweetness and depth, which had in it, beyond all else, the undefinable, but heart-stirring quality of sincerity. Here, then, was a form altogether fitted by nature for the embodiment of the Theban maiden of royal race; and within it a soul that could feel and make manifest the exalted sense of duty, the inflexible resolve, and the pious self-sacrifice of Antigone.

My own recollections of Miss Faucit's performance in Antigone are naturally in great part those of an artist. And in fact, after the first time of seeing her in that role, I found myself on subsequent occasions very much occupied in watching the plastic beauty of her movements and attitudes, and their marvellous expressiveness. Such an unlooked-for opportunity of practical study was not to be thrown away. It could scarcely recur in a lifetime. For in general the stage, with its stereotyped traditions and conventions, is about the last place where painter or sculptor could expect to find natural and spontaneous expression of the emotions. Far greater would be his chances amongst an un-sophisticated peasantry. Now it was peculiar to Helen Faucit that her action was never conventional, or regulated by previous drill, but was the unconscious result of the feeling which swayed her at the moment. How genuine, how utterly unpremeditated were her actions and gestures was proved by their never being exactly repeated on any two similar occasions. She was far too true an artist to dream of posing, or 'making points.' She abandoned herself confidently to the inspiration of her part — the proper action would not fail to follow. But this very opulence of aesthetic capacity in her was apt to disconcert me in my desired studies. For example, when forcibly struck with the artistic completeness of some momentary pose or action, and its capability of being reproduced and perpetuated, without any change, in the art of design, but by reason of its transientness difficult to seize and fix in the memory, I ardently hoped to see it repeated on a future occasion. Herein I was doomed to disappointment. What took its place was doubtless equally appropriate and effective in its way, only it may have chanced to lack just that happy formative character, that completeness of motif which had so surprised and charmed me in the first instance” (Martin 150-52). — Dennis T. Lanigan

Bibliography

Martin, Theodore. Helena Faucit (Lady Martin) . Edinburgh, London: W. Blackwood and Sons, 1900.

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Last modified 13 April 2022