Ophelia (portrait of Ellen Terry in the role)

Anna Lea Merritt

This portrait was executed after an oil painting exhibited at the Royal Academy of London in 1880. Merritt studied inmates at a British a mental facility as well, to try to capture what she viewed as the essence of Shakespeare's Ophelia as performed by the great British actress Ellen Terry, mother of artist Edward Gordon Craig.

The American Art Review was inspired by the European etching art of James McNeill Whistler, Charles Meryon, Sir Francis Seymour Haden and others. A large number of American artists became seriously interested in the art of etching by 1875. A primary catalyst to the etching revival in America was the journal, American Art Review (1879-1881).

Founded and edited by Sylvester Rosa Koehler it commissioned American artists for original etchings. Contributing etchers included such famous artists of the time as Thomas and Peter Moran, Otto Bacher, J. M. Falconer, Robert Swain Gifford, Henry Farrer, Samuel Colman, John Foxcroft Cole, Ignaz Marcel Gaugengigl and James D. Smillie.

Due mostly to its lavish production costs the journal lasted only slightly over two years.

The finely printed etchings it produced, however, served as a cornerstone for the many great American etchings of the early twentieth century.