The Felton portrait of Shakespeare [graphic].
1792
Items
Linked e-resources
Linked Resource
Digital image(s) of Folger Shakespeare Library FPs13
Details
Title
The Felton portrait of Shakespeare [graphic].
Created/published
ca. [1792?]
Description
1 painting on panel : tempera and oil (?) ; 27.8 x 21 cm + frame ca. 22 x 20 in.
Associated name
Burdett-Coutts, Angela Georgina, 1814-1906, former owner.
Felton, Samuel, former owner.
Nicol, George, former owner.
Westmacott, C. M. (Charles Molloy), 1787 or 1788-1868, former owner.
Wrenfordsley, former owner.
Felton, Samuel, former owner.
Nicol, George, former owner.
Westmacott, C. M. (Charles Molloy), 1787 or 1788-1868, former owner.
Wrenfordsley, former owner.
Note
No inscription can now be seen on the verso, but according to George Steevens, writing in 1794, the panel was inscribed, "Guil. Shakspeare, 1597. R.N." Wivell records it as reading, "Gul. Shakspear / 1597-R-B." He notes that the inscription was painted in black and white, and he reproduces Richardson's transcription, which first was engraved on Trotter's print, and his own in his book of 1827 (facing p. 39)
Related works: A drawing executed after the painting for Horace Walpole is also owned by the FSL. It enlarges the amount of the figure shown and is not completely accurate in its details. A copy of the painting is in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre Picture Gallery. It is said to have been painted by John Boaden in 1792. Another early copy was made for George Steevens by Josiah Boydell.
Title from Pressly.
Related works: A drawing executed after the painting for Horace Walpole is also owned by the FSL. It enlarges the amount of the figure shown and is not completely accurate in its details. A copy of the painting is in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre Picture Gallery. It is said to have been painted by John Boaden in 1792. Another early copy was made for George Steevens by Josiah Boydell.
Title from Pressly.
Provenance
Provenance: Placed on sale in the European Museum, London, by an anonymous gentleman; bought on 31 May 1792 by Samuel Felton of Drayton, Shropshire, and Curzon Street in Mayfair for 5 guineas; bought ca. 1794 by George Nicol for 40 guineas; according to :Friswell (1864), it came into the possession of a Mr. Westmacott, a London solicitor who died in 1861 or 1862; Christie, Manson & Woods, Auctioneers, 8 King St., St. James's Square, London, 30 April 1870, lot 96, as "part of an estate in course of administration under orders of the Court of Chancery," bought in at 50 guineas by Wrenfordsley (name in Graves, Art Sales); the Christie's 1922 sale catalogue states that George Nicol's collection was sold in 1873 and the Shakespeare head passed into the jpossession of Baroness Burdett-Coutts, thereby implying, without explicitly saying, that the baroness acquired it from the Nicol collection.
Source of acquisition
Burdett-Coutts sale, Christie's, 4 May 1922, lot 131, £1522.10.0 plus 10 percent commission, Rosenbach acting as agent.
Exhibited
Exhibited: London, European Museum, Fourth Exhibition and Sale, 1792, no. 359; for a time on exhibition at the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery; London, 1890, no. 389; 'As imagination bodies forth...' [paintings] Oct. 28, 1993-Feb. 15, 1994; "Roasting the Swan of Avon," Mar. 17-June 4, 94.
Cited/described in
Pressly, W.L. Paintings in the Folger Shakespeare Library, 150
Linked resources
Digital image(s) of Folger Shakespeare Library FPs13
Genre/form
Portrait paintings.
Item Details
Call number
FPs13 (rack D-1A)
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.