Céline Céleste (c. 1811-1882), actor and director, trained for the stage in her native Paris and was performing in American cities by her late teens. By 1830 she was appearing in England, where her renown increased over the 1840s and peaked in the 1850s. In 1860 she leased London’s Lyceum Theatre, where she oversaw a number of productions before embarking on an international and colonial tour in 1863. When she came to perform in Melbourne’s new (and short-lived) Haymarket Theatre in 1867, newspapers made much of her decades-long career, but reassured potential theatregoers that her intellectual vigour was unimpaired, and ‘her artistic lustre was scarcely dimmed by the march of time’.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Graham Smith 2009
Accession number: 2009.63
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On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves: who we read, who we watch, who we listen to, who we cheer for, who we aspire to be, and who we'll never forget. The Companion is available to buy online and in the Portrait Gallery Store.
Joanna Gilmour explores the fact and fictions surrounding the legendary life of Irish-born dancer Lola Montez.
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