06/16/2026
In honor of Pride Month, our Work of the Week celebrates the influential q***r actor, Charlotte Cushman, who paved the way for American gender fluid performers. 🎭🌃
Billed as “the greatest living tragic actress” of the mid-nineteenth century, Charlotte Cushman excelled in portraying strong women, notably William Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth. She became best known, however, for convincingly portraying male characters, including Hamlet and Romeo. While other female performers titillated audiences by crossdressing as men, Cushman used her large physique, prominent jawline, and athleticism to astonish viewers with an uncanny experience of gender-bending verisimilitude.
Cushman defied gender norms offstage as well, often dressing in the masculine style represented in this portrait. She managed her own career and demanded equal pay with male actors. Lack of public awareness about le***an sexuality enabled her to sustain long-term intimate relationships with women while avoiding scandal. From 1845 to 1849, Cushman toured Britain, impressing audiences with her vigorous “American” acting style. During the 1850s, she became the center of an expatriate community of women artists and writers in Rome, where this portrait was painted.
—Text from the National Portrait Gallery
Image:
William Page, Jan 1811 - 30 Sep 1885, Charlotte Cushman, 1850s, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. CC0.
