Smithson, Harriet Constance (1800–54), actress and wife of Hector Berlioz , was born 18 March 1800 in Ennis, Co. Clare, daughter of William Joseph Smithson, actor and theatrical manager, originally from Gloucestershire, England. Details of her mother are scarce and she is usually mentioned simply as ‘Mrs Smithson’. It is known that she was also an actress and that Harriet had at least one sister and a brother, Joseph Smithson, who later worked as an actor and theatrical manager. Raised in Ennis, with the Rev. James Barrett as her guardian, she was sent to a boarding school at Waterford in 1808. Deciding to follow her parents in a career on the stage, she made her debut as Albina Mandeville in The will (27 May 1814) at the Theatre Royal, Dublin. An immediate success, she joined Montague Talbot's company, and toured the country playing a number of comic roles.
In 1817 she moved to Birmingham, where Robert Elliston, one of the finest actors of the day, had offered her a place in his company. She made her London debut on 20 January 1818 at Drury Lane. The theatrical press initially gave her mixed reviews but she soon acquired a large public following, playing supporting roles in light comedies. She returned to Dublin in the summer of 1820 where she worked in the improvised theatre in the Rotunda before travelling to London. The remainder of her acting career would be spent mostly in England or on the Continent. Acting alongside some of the great dramatic actors of the day, such as Charles Kemble, William Charles Macready, and Charles Mayne Young, she began to be cast in more demanding roles. She became a prominent Shakespearean actress, playing parts such as Juliet, Ophelia, and Desdemona, but made a very insipid Lady Macbeth. Theatrical journals often criticised her Irish accent, her mispronunciations, her tendency towards false emphasis, and her wooden delivery. Such criticisms had little impact on the theatre-going public, and she enjoyed a large following. The reason for this was simple: she was exquisitely beautiful. Acting in various roles in London and Dublin over the next few years, she also appeared on the stage at Boulogne, where her brother was manager of the English theatre, and at Calais. On 11 September 1827 Smithson starred as Ophelia in a production of ‘Hamlet’ at the Odéon in Paris. To prepare for the mad scenes she locked herself in her room for two days to study the part. Parisian audiences were much impressed by her emotional performances and she became known as ‘La Belle Irlandaise’ while prominent writers such Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, père, and Alfred de Vigny sang her praises. Also present that night was the young composer Hector Berlioz, who began to harbour an unhealthy infatuation with her, secretly following her in the street and even taking rooms opposite her apartment. Smithson was to have a profound influence on his life. She was his introduction to Shakespeare and he became obsessed with her; she is credited with inspiring him with the Shakespearean image which dominated his music. ‘Fair Ophelia’ won enormous popular and critical acclaim in Paris, and Smithson was at the height of her fame. Her interpretation of Juliet also won her much praise; again the part of the ingénue was perfect for her. Influenced by Smithson, Berlioz began working on one of his greatest works, the ‘Symphonie fantastique’ (1830), a self-portrait subtitled ‘Episodes in the life of an artist’. The programme for the piece explained the idée fixe, a double obsession, which haunted the artist and which was based on his love for Smithson.
Returning to England in 1828, Smithson never again achieved the same level of popularity and she was increasingly in debt. In May 1830 she was accorded a singular honour when she was asked by the directors of the Opéra-Comique to appear in their comic opera ‘L'auberge d'Auray’, in which she took a silent role as she could not speak French. Unfortunately the directors later absconded and she received no payment. During this visit the hopelessly infatuated Berlioz composed the ‘Élegie’ for his ‘Mélodies’ and dedicated it to Smithson; this piece was based on ‘When he who adores thee’ by Thomas Moore (qv) and was later rededicated to Robert Emmet (qv). On a visit to Paris in 1832, Smithson attended a performance of the ‘Symphonie fantastique’ on 9 December. Recognising herself in the programme notes, she was moved and shaken by the force of Berlioz's passion. They met for the first time the next day, fell in love, and agreed to marry. As Berlioz wrote to his friend Franz Liszt, ‘when she avowed her feelings openly, I was alarmed and driven nearly mad’ (MacDonald, 103). As the day set for the wedding grew near she became hesitant, and at a meeting in August 1833 Berlioz forced the issue by taking poison in front of her. He later described this deeply unhealthy and rather bizarre scene in his memoirs: ‘Frightful shrieks from Henrietta, sublime despair, cruel laughter on my part, desire to live again on seeing her vehement protestations of love, an emetic, ipécacuana, vomiting for two hours’ (Raby, 144). Despite his parents' opposition they married at the British embassy at Paris on 3 October 1833. It did not last. Smithson and Berlioz quickly discovered that they had little in common and the relationship became acrimonious and fraught with tensions, despite the birth of their son, Louis (1834–67).
Her benefit performance, staged at the Théâtre Italian in November 1833 was organised by Berlioz and proved to be a disaster. The programme was badly chosen, while the organisation was shambolic; the orchestra were not contracted to stay after midnight and they left before the performance had ended. Harriet received no curtain calls and did not raise nearly enough funds to clear her debts. Contrary to popular belief, this was not her last stage appearance and she appeared in one-off performances in 1834, 1835, and 1837. Berlioz tried to get friends such as Dumas, Hugo, and Georges Sand to include parts for her in their new stage plays, but to no avail.
Retiring from the stage, Smithson began to doubt her husband's fidelity and disliked his leaving Paris. Persistent illness gradually took its toll on her constitution, and she grew frail and increasingly bitter. Descending into alcoholism, she reacted furiously in 1843 when she discovered that Berlioz had taken a mistress; they separated the following year and she took to drinking heavily, often visiting spa-resorts in an effort to end her addiction. In the summer of 1848 she survived a mysterious attempt on her life when an unidentified gunman shot at her as she walked in the grounds of her home. The bullet missed her head by inches; the gunman was never caught. A few months later she suffered the first of five strokes. In the last sad years of her life, she was partly paralysed while her speech was badly affected. Berlioz occasionally visited her. She died on 3 March 1854 and was buried in the old Montmartre cemetery. Only a small group attended her funeral. Torn by guilt and grief, Berlioz admitted that ‘we could neither live together nor part’, but he acknowledged that ‘she made me understand Shakespeare and great dramatic art’ (MacDonald, 310). In a cold elegy, Liszt wrote to his friend that ‘she inspired you, you loved her, you sang of her, her task was done’. A few months after her death, Berlioz married Marie Recio (d. 1862). He had Harriet's remains disinterred and placed in a vault beside those of Marie Recio in the new Montmartre cemetery, a final and cruel irony.
A few of Harriet Smithson's letters survive in public collections in the BL, the NLI, and the Yale University Library. The majority of her letters were referred to, or quoted in full, in Hector Berlioz's Correspondence générale, published in a new edition in 1972. She wrote an account of her life and career for William Oxberry, which he included in his Dramatic biography, published in 1825–6. Numerous portraits of Harriet Smithson survive as, due to her great beauty, she was a favourite subject of British and French artists. A. Devéria and L. Boulanger included several lithographic images of her in Souvenirs du théâtre Anglais à Paris (1827). Devéria also completed a more formal portrait in 1827, as did G. Maile and Dubufe, both in 1828. There are further portraits by Le Bal, H. Fantin-Latour, and R. E. Drummond. Many of these depict her in her more memorable stage roles and were reproduced as mezzotints for popular sale.