Falstaff struggling with Hotspur's body [graphic] / Robert Smirke.
1820
Items
Details
Title
Falstaff struggling with Hotspur's body [graphic] / Robert Smirke.
Created/published
ca. 1820-1825.
Description
1 painting on panel : oil, pencil underdrawing and border ; in.
Associated name
Smirke, Robert, 1752-1845, artist.
Material base
wood
Summary
Falstaff, in the climactic battle of the play, feigns death in order to escape from the Earl of Douglas. As soon as Prince Hal leaves after having slain his noble adversary Hotspur, Falstaff takes up the body, claiming he had been the vanquisher. Before taking on this burden, Falstaff had stabbed Hotspur in the thigh in case he too had been feigning death. Smirke chooses not to focus on the bloody violence implicit in the scene; not even a sword is to be found nearby. He also plays down Falstaff's size in this one instance in order to make his task of taking up Hotspur's body all the more difficult. In the theater, actors playing Falstaff often stretched out the action, tumbling about with the body before finally hefting it into position (see Sprague 1944, pp. 90-91. After audiences tired of this particular piece of buffoonery, some actors abandoned it altogether, having soldiers carry off the body)
Note
Five of the six panels from the second set (nos. 64, 68, 69, 70, 71) are initialed in brown paint at lower right "RS." The initials in each case are clearly a later addition placed on top of the old varnish.
The twelve panels at the Folger Shakespeare Library are the only ones known to have survived from a series that originally numbered forty works. Given their small size and monochromatic execution, they were obviously intended from the beginning as designed for engravings, and it is from the engravings that one can reconstruct the entire series. Smirke executed five designed for each of eight plays: The Tempest, Merry Wives of Windsor, Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night, Measure for Measure, I Henry IV, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Romeo and Juliet. The first four plays were published by Rodwell and Martin, Bond Street, London, in 1821 and 1822. Each play also had a title page illustrated with a vignette. Apparently, the remaining illustrations were only published independently of the text. The engravings for the remaining three plays by Hurst, Robinson & Co. and R. Jennings in 1825. This last company published all forty engravings together with a title page that reads Illustrations to Shakespeare by Robert Smirke, R.A. Some of these scenes were reproduced in later editions in engravings of inferior quality.
Because of the similarity in concept and execution, the panels were presumably executed at approximately the same time, even though the scenes were not engraved all at once. Smirke may have executed the designed for The Merry Wives of Windsor first, since in these images he employed heavily incised lines, a practice he soon abandoned. In terms of execution, the two scenes from I Henry IV are among the best, and they may well have been among the last executed.
1 of series of 12.
Preparatory drawing: "Falstaff Dragging away the Body of Hotspur," pen and brown ink with brown wash and bodycolor over pencil with gum, 6 7/16 x 4 15/16 in., Paul Mellon Collection, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven.
Title from Pressly.
The twelve panels at the Folger Shakespeare Library are the only ones known to have survived from a series that originally numbered forty works. Given their small size and monochromatic execution, they were obviously intended from the beginning as designed for engravings, and it is from the engravings that one can reconstruct the entire series. Smirke executed five designed for each of eight plays: The Tempest, Merry Wives of Windsor, Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night, Measure for Measure, I Henry IV, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Romeo and Juliet. The first four plays were published by Rodwell and Martin, Bond Street, London, in 1821 and 1822. Each play also had a title page illustrated with a vignette. Apparently, the remaining illustrations were only published independently of the text. The engravings for the remaining three plays by Hurst, Robinson & Co. and R. Jennings in 1825. This last company published all forty engravings together with a title page that reads Illustrations to Shakespeare by Robert Smirke, R.A. Some of these scenes were reproduced in later editions in engravings of inferior quality.
Because of the similarity in concept and execution, the panels were presumably executed at approximately the same time, even though the scenes were not engraved all at once. Smirke may have executed the designed for The Merry Wives of Windsor first, since in these images he employed heavily incised lines, a practice he soon abandoned. In terms of execution, the two scenes from I Henry IV are among the best, and they may well have been among the last executed.
1 of series of 12.
Preparatory drawing: "Falstaff Dragging away the Body of Hotspur," pen and brown ink with brown wash and bodycolor over pencil with gum, 6 7/16 x 4 15/16 in., Paul Mellon Collection, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven.
Title from Pressly.
Provenance
Provenance: Set of six (nos. 60, 61, 62, 63, 66, 67), Maggs Bros., Rare Books, Prints and Autographs, 34-35 Conduit St., New Bond St., London, November 1923, £52.10.0, as by Stothard; set of six (nos. 64, 65, 68, 69, 70, 71), Maggs Bros., Rare Books, Prints and Autographs, 34-35 Conduit St., New Bond St., London, November 1924, £52.10.0, as by Smirke.
Exhibited
Exhibited: Four of the paintings were in the Henry IV exhibition held at Amherst in 1959 as painted by Stothard. Nos. 60 and 61 were in this group, and presumably the other two were nos. 62 and 63, since Falstaff also appears in The Merry Wives of Windsor.
Cited/described in
Pressly, W.L. Paintings in the Folger Shakespeare Library, 61
Genre/form
Paintings.
Place of creation/publication
Great Britain -- England.
Item Details
Call number
FPa61 (range 259, boxed)
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.