Mrs Rousby

A carte-de-visite portrait of the actress Clara Rousby, invariable referred to as 'the beautiful Mrs Rousby' in newspaper reports of her day, of which there were a great many. She died of consumption in Wiesbaden on 19 April 1879.

According to one report of her death: 'The fame she gained nine or ten years ago, however, was clouded in later life by repeated misconduct and neglect of her husband. The flattery of admirers turned her vain little head' (The Daily Gazette, Middlesborough, 22 April 1879).

According to another newspaper: 'Flatterers and excitement turned her head. One evening she was missing alike from the stage and from her home. Repeated absences and repeated forgivenesses told, and at last there came a life-long separation from her husband and her one surviving child. Her malady was strong, and its progress steady. When her husband and herself met a year ago in a judge's chambers to discuss the custody of their child, she had changed almost beyond recognition. Her pitiful fracas with Herr Bandmann, and her repeated accidents while recklessly horse-riding, brought her name again and again before the public; but she was never more to return to the pinnacle of popularity from which she had so fallen, and which her strong nerve, intellectual capacity, and fatal beauty qualified her to fill' (Freeman's Journal, Dublin, 23 April 1879).

Photographed by the London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company.