Boydell Shakespeare Gallery

The Boydell Shakespeare Gallery in London, England, was the first stage of a three-part project initiated in November 1786 by engraver and publisher John Boydell. Boydell planned to produce an illustrated edition of William Shakespeare’s plays and a folio of prints based upon a series of paintings by different contemporary painters. During the 1790s the London gallery that showed the original paintings emerged as the project’s most popular element. The project caused the Boydell firm to become insolvent, and they were forced to sell the gallery at a lottery.

About Boydell Shakespeare Gallery in brief

The Boydell Shakespeare Gallery in London, England, was the first stage of a three-part project initiated in November 1786 by engraver and publisher John Boydell. Boydell planned to produce an illustrated edition of William Shakespeare’s plays and a folio of prints based upon a series of paintings by different contemporary painters. During the 1790s the London gallery that showed the original paintings emerged as the project’s most popular element. The project caused the Boydell firm to become insolvent, and they were forced to sell the gallery at a lottery. The works of Shakespeare enjoyed a renewed popularity in 18th-century Britain. Several new editions of his works were published, his plays were revived in the theatre and numerous works of art were created illustrating the plays and specific productions of them. By the end of the 18th century, one out of every six plays performed in London was by Shakespeare. The rise in Shakespeare’s popularity coincided with Britain’s accelerating change from an oral to a print culture. The actor, director, and producer David Garrick was a key figure in Shakespeare’s theatrical renaissance. His reportedly superb acting, unrivalled productions, numerous and important Shakespearean portraits, and his spectacular 1769 Shakespeare Jubilee helped promote Shakespeare as a marketable product and the national playwright. Shakespeare appealed not only to a social elite who prided themselves on their artistic taste, but also to the emerging middle class who saw in his works a vision of a diversified society.

According to Shakespeare scholar Gary Taylor, Shakespearean criticism became so uprooted that he could not be extracted without a century and a half of the national canon of English literature. The first illustrated edition, published in 1709 by Jacob Tonson and Nicholas Rowe, was also the first edition of the Shakespeare canon. In order to turn a profit, booksellers chose well-known authors, such as Alexander Pope and Samuel Johnson, to edit Shakespeare editions. In 1773 and 1785, family sets advertised themselves as instructive and instructive, which were supposed to have taken for common or garden use, rather than library rather than domestic use. The exhibitions became important public events: thousands flocked to see them, and newspapers reported in detail on the works displayed. They became a fashionable place to be seen. In the process of the process, the public was refamiliarized with Shakespeare’s works. In particular, the conversation pieces designed chiefly for homes generated a wide audience for literary art, especially Shakespearean art. This tradition began with William Hogarth and attained its peak in the Royal Academy exhibitions, which displayed paintings, drawings, and sculptures. The exhibition tradition began in the 1770s and 1780s and reached its peak at the Royal. Academy exhibitions in London in 1788 and 1789. The Royal Academy exhibition was the most important public event in the UK in the late 1800s and early 1900s. It was followed by the opening of the Royal College of Art in 1799.

Related posts:

The World Before the Flood Youth on the Prow, and Pleasure at the Helm William Shakespeare Shakespeare authorship question