If it is the mark of the artist to love art before everything, to renounce everything for its sake, to think all the sweet human things of life well lost if only he may attain something, do some good, great work - then I was never an artist.

Because of Watts's paintings of her and her association with him Ellen Terry "became a cult figure for poets and painters of the later Pre-Raphaelite and Aesthetic movements including Oscar Wilde". Returning to England Ellen Terry played roles such as Nell Gwynne in The First Actress by Christopher St. Terry's first appearance on stage came at the age of eight when Ellen Terry appeared opposite Charles Kean as Mamillius in Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale at London's Princess's Theatre in 1856.

She continued to find acting success until 1920 while also appearing in films until 1922. In 1903 Terry took over management of London's Imperial Theatre focusing on the plays of George Bernard Shaw and Henrik Ibsen.