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A miniature watercolour portrait of the actress Phyllis Neilson-Terry in a production of Trilby, staged in 1922 at the Apollo Theatre, London. She stands with hands on hips in eccentric garb, within an artist's studio. Signed, lower left.

Trilby O’Ferrall was an artist’s model and laundress portrayed in George du Maurier’s highly influential and popular novel, Trilby, published in 1894. The novel’s depiction of the artists’ milieu of 1850s Paris is a source for many of our received notions about the bohemian lifestyle. Dora Webb’s watercolour is based on one of Du Maurier’s illustrations. Set within an artist’s studio, Trilby’s defiant stance, masculine mismatched attire and bare feet speak of a carefree independent spirit. She can perhaps be seen as a trailblazer for the relatively liberated woman of the 1920s. The writer and critic Luc Sante wrote that the novel ‘affected the habits of American youth, particularly young women, who derived from it the courage to call themselves artists and “bachelor girls”, to smoke cigarettes and drink Chianti’.

Phyllis Neilson-Terry was a niece of the legendary actress, Ellen Terry. She enjoyed early stage success in Shakespearean roles, for instance as the female lead in a 1911 production of Romeo and Juliet at the New Theatre in London.

For a lithograph portrait of George du Maurier, celebrated author of Trilby, see RCIN 505079.