Boydell Shakespeare Library
These stipple engravings were created in the late 18th century are part of a celebrated series commissioned for the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery, a landmark effort to pair Britain’s greatest literary figure with the talents of leading contemporary artists and engravers. The result was a visual celebration of Shakespeare’s plays that helped shape English cultural identity at the end of the Georgian era.
John and Josiah Boydell who conceived the idea of “a fine Edition of Shakespeare” comparable to the rival the elegant volumes with which the French celebrated their great writers which would be richly illustrated with works by the great artists of the period. As part of the plan, they also decided to create a “Shakespeare Gallery” and to commission distinguished artists such as Sir Joshua Reynolds, George Rommy, and Benjamin West to do a series of oils depicting scenes and caracters from the plays. The paintings would be exhibited in the Gallery and serve as the basis for two series of prints. The large prints were published as part of an imperial foilo album without text. These large format engravings ere apparently part of that group. A seperate set of smaller engravings were made to accompany the text.
The Shakespeare Gallery, housed in its own building at Pall Mall, became on of the main tourist attractions for visitors to London at the end of the eighteenth century.
