Patience Harris

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Patience Glossop Harris (1857 - December 1901), was a British costume designer for the theatre best known for her work with the actor Ellen Terry.

Biography[]

Patience Glossop Harris was the daughter of Augustus Glossop Harris, an actor and theater manager, and Maria Ann (Bone) Harris, a theatrical costumier.[1] She had two sisters, Ellen (Nelly) and Maria, and two brothers, Charles and Augustus, an actor and theatrical manager.[1][2]

Harris oversaw the actor Ellen Terry's costumes during the first decade of Terry's career at the Lyceum Theatre, from the late 1870s to the late 1880s[2] During this period, Harris designed elaborate, heavy costumes in luxurious fabrics for Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, and Much Ado About Nothing, among other plays.[2]: 289–94  In 1882, Terry brought the costume designer Alice Comyns Carr on board as a consultant.[2]: 304  Harris and Carr worked together until 1887, but their tastes differed, with Carr favoring simpler, more flowing designs in the Aesthetic dress style.[2]: 304–307  Their disagreements reached a head in 1887 over designs for the plays Henry VIII and The Amber Heart, and Harris resigned.[2]: 304 [3] Carr succeeded her as Terry's head costumer designer.[3][4]

Information is lacking about the succeeding decade of Harris's career. At the time of her death, she was working under the company name Auguste et Cie.[2]: 288  Costumes bearing this label were worn by both Terry and the actor-manager Henry Irving.[2]: 288 

The circumstances of Harris's death provoked an inquest, and it was suggested that she may have died of alcoholism.[2]: 288 [5]

References[]

  1. ^ a b "Augustus Henry Glossop Harris, 1852-1896" The Correspondence of James MacNeill Whistler, University of Glasgow.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Isaac, Veronica Tetley. "'Dressing the Part': Ellen Terry (1847-1928)". PhD dissertation, University of Brighton, 2016.
  3. ^ a b "The Actor and the Maker: Ellen Terry and Alice Comyns-Carr". Victoria and Albert Museum website.
  4. ^ Comyns Carr, Mrs. J. (Alice Comyns Carr). Mrs. J. Comyns Carr's 'Reminiscences' . London: Hutchinson, 1926.
  5. ^ "Death of Miss Patience Glossop Harris". The Derbyshire Times, 4 January 1902.
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