Ethel Maude Warwick (13 October 1882 – 12 September 1951) was a British

stage actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), lite ...

, appearing in both plays and films. Warwick was also a model for several artists, prominently for

John William Godward John William Godward (9 August 1861 – 13 December 1922) was an English painter from the end of the Neo-Classicist era. He was a protégé of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, but his style of painting fell out of favour with the rise of modern ...

Biography

Early years

Ethel Maude Warwick was a daughter of Frank and Maude Warwick, and was born in

Hardingstone Hardingstone is a village in Northamptonshire, England. It is on the southern edge of Northampton, and now forms a suburb of the town. It is about from the town centre. The Newport Pagnell road (the B526, formerly part of the A50) separates ...

, Northampton, on 13 October 1882. Her education began in

Margate Margate is a seaside town on the north coast of Kent in south-east England. The town is estimated to be 1.5 miles long, north-east of Canterbury and includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay and Westbrook. The town has been a significan ...

and Hampstead, but by the early 1890s she was studying to become an artist at the London Polytechnic. Ethel became an artists model to help pay for her tuition at the London Polytechnic, which led to her meeting Herbert Draper; Draper used her as a model for several of his paintings, including '' The Lament for Icarus''. Through him she became a favoured model for several artists, including

and

Linley Sambourne Edward Linley Sambourne (4 January 18443 August 1910) was an English cartoonist and illustrator most famous for being a draughtsman for the satirical magazine ''Punch magazine, Punch'' for more than forty years and rising to the position of "Fir ...

, for whom she posed nude in a series of photographic studies. She was also sketched by James McNeill Whistler.

Acting career

Despite training to become an artist, Warwick instead began to take part in acting lessons at Henry Neville’s acting school during the late 1890s, and in July 1900 she made her debut by starring in ''The Corsican Brothers'' as Emilie de L'Esparre at the Grande Theatre, in Fulham. Though still an artists model, Warwick continued to pose for many studies, photographs and portraits. During this time, she was most notably posing for Herbert Draper. However, on 24 March 1906, Warwick married Edmund Waller, and therefore discontinued her modelling. Edmund and Ethel had stage ''grandeur'' at the time of their marriage, and embarked on a worldwide tour together—in 1910 did they arrive at

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. Whilst living at London they took management over the Queen's Theatre. Ethel_Warwick_by_Reautlinger

In 1915 Warwick and Waller divorced, which, upon Ethel’s extravagant lifestyle, caused her to go bankrupt in 1923. Warwick still acted after this, and was well-known at the New Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Death

Ethel died in a Bognor Regis nursing home on 12 September 1951, presumably due to lung cancer.

Selected filmography

* '' The Magistrate'' (1921) * '' Keepers of Youth'' (1931) * '' Bachelor's Baby'' (1932) * ''

Letting in the Sunshine ''Letting in the Sunshine'' is a 1933 British comedy crime film directed by Lupino Lane and starring Albert Burdon, Renee Gadd and Molly Lamont. It was based on a story by Anthony Asquith.Sutton p.218 The film was made by British International ...

'' (1933) * ''

The Man Outside ''The Man Outside'' (, literally ''Outside, at the door'') is a play by Wolfgang Borchert, written in a few days in the late autumn of 1946. It made its debut on German radio on 13 February 1947. ''The Man Outside'' describes the hopelessness of ...

'' (1933)

Appearances in art

File:Ethel (2).jpg, ''Ethel'', a sketch by

Herbert James Draper Herbert James Draper ( (baptism record) – ) was an English Classicist painter whose career began in the Victorian era and extended through the first two decades of the 20th century. Life Born in London, the son of a fruit merchant named Joh ...

File:Philip-Wilson-Steer-Hydrangeas.jpg, ''Hydrangeas''. Oil on Canvas by

Philip Wilson Steer Philip Wilson Steer (28 December 1860 – 18 March 1942) was a British painter of landscapes, seascapes plus portraits and figure studies. He was also an influential art teacher. His sea and landscape paintings made him a leading figure in ...

, ca. 1901 File:Study of miss Ethel Warwick, by John William Godward.jpg, ''Study of Miss Ethel Warwick''. Oil on canvas by

, ca. 1898 File:Ethel Warwick Asleep on a Sofa.jpg, ''Ethel Warwick asleep on a sofa''. Sketch by

James Abbott McNeill Whistler James Abbott McNeill Whistler (; July 10, 1834July 17, 1903) was an American painter active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral allusion in painting and was a leading pr ...

, from 1900 File:Ethel Warwick (1).jpg, ''Study of Miss Ethel Warwick''. Photograph by

, ca. 1900 File:Ethel Warwick.jpg, Promotional photograph, ca. 1900

References

Bibliography

* Low, Rachael. ''The History of British Film The History of the British Film 1914 - 1918''. Routledge, 2013.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Warwick, Ethel 1882 births 1951 deaths British stage actresses British film actresses Actresses from London Actors from Northampton