Items
Details
Title
Macbeth and the witches [graphic] / by George Romney.
Created/published
1785.
Description
1 painting on canvas : oil ; 74.9 x 64 cm
Associated name
Romney, George, 1734-1802, artist.
Material base
canvas
Note
There is a two-line inscription at the left of Macbeth's right foot. The top line is extremely difficult to read, and it was assumed in the 1977 restoration to be a signature. If this is the case, it seems unlikely that it spells "Romney." Two expert cipherers, independently of one another, concluded that the word is "Febr." The inscription, therefore, reads, "Febr / 1785."
Title from Pressly.
Title from Pressly.
Condition
canvas suffers from extensive solvent abrasion in an early restoration. The canvas has a cream-colored ground, and pentimenti are visible around the hands of several of the figures
Source of acquisition
E. Parsons & Sons, Fine Art Dealers in Books, Prints and Paintings, 45 Brompton Rd., London SW3 [1927]; Fine Art Book and Print Sellers and Picture Dealers [1926 and 1929]; Fine Art Book and Print Sellers and Dealers in Pictures and Original Drawings by the Old Masters [1929], June 1929, £42.10.6.
Exhibited
Exhibited: Amherst, Mead Art Building, Amherst College, "Benjamin West: His Times and His Influence," 1950, no. 19; Amherst, Mead Art Building, Amherst College, "Shakespeare, Hamlet and Macbeth," (no catalogue), 1951; Washington, D.C., Federal Reserve Board, "Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century English Painting," 1976-1977, no. 19; San Francisco, California Academy of Sciences, "Shakespeare: The Globe and the World," 1979-1982, repr. in color p. 168; Montgomery, Ala., Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, "A Brush with Shakespeare: The Bard in Painting, 1780-1910," 1985-1985, no. 55; Washington, D.C., Folger Shakespeare Library, "Designs from Fancy: George Romney's Shakespearean Drawings," 1998-1999, no. 31.
Cited/described in
Pressly, W.L. Paintings in the Folger Shakespeare Library, 53
Genre/form
Paintings.
Place of creation/publication
Great Britain -- England.
Item Details
Call number
FPb41
Folger-specific note
This record contains unverified data from a re-keying contract and may contain incorrect or incomplete text. Please consult Curator for assistance.
Folger accession
cs1929