Shakespeare Gallery

The Romantic Illustration Network Shakespeare Gallery

The Romantic Illustration Network would like to express its gratitude to Professor Fred Burwick, who provided us with the negatives for the high-resolution digital images of the engravings displayed below.

The Boydell Shakespeare Gallery, 1789-1805

An exhibition of paintings devoted exclusively to scenes from the dramatic works of Shakespeare was opened to the London populace in June, 1789. The Shakespeare Gallery was situated in a huge building at 52 Pall Mall. Formerly occupied by Dodsley’s bookshop, the building had been rebuilt under the supervision of George Dance the younger. The exterior was sheathed in copper; the entrance featured a relief of Shakespeare reclining against a rock, with the Dramatic Muse to his right and the Genius of Painting to his left. The exhibition suite on the ground floor was 130 feet long; the three rooms upstairs provided a wall area of over 4,000 square feet for exhibiting the paintings. Obviously there was room for many more than the thirty-four paintings which were displayed for the first visitors. The number of paintings doubled the ensuing year, and each spring an exhibition of newly completed paintings was announced, so that the Shakespeare Gallery, before it finally closed in 1805, eventually housed 167 canvases by thirty-three artists.

[Excerpt from the Introduction to The Boydell Shakespeare Gallery, by Frederick Burwick]

Click on the thumbnails below to access larger versions of the images, and to view the full-sized image. Images are arranged alphabetically by play, and new plays will be added over the coming months, so do keep checking back here.

Mary L. Shannon

Dustin Frazier Wood

Creative Commons Licence
The Romantic Illustration Network Shakespeare Gallery by Frederick Burwick and the Romantic Illustration Network is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Digitised by the University of Roehampton.

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Front Matter to the Boydells’ two-volume Collection of Prints

The Alto Relievo in Front of the Shakspeare Gallery, Pall-Mall
Volume I Title Page
His Most Gracious Majesty King George the Third
The Infant Shakespeare Attended by Nature and the Passions
Volume II Title Page
Her Most Gracious Majesty, Queen Charlotte
SHAKSPEARE Nursed by Tragedy and Comedy

Antony and Cleopatra

Act III, Scene IX

 

 As You Like It

Act I, Scene II
Act II, Scene I
Act II, Scene VII (a)
Act II, Scene VII (b)
Act II, Scene VII (c)
Act II, Scene VII (d)
Act II, Scene VII (e)
Act II, Scene VII (f)
Act II, Scene VII (g)
Act IV, Scene III
Act V, Scene IV

Comedy of Errors

Act V, Scene I

Coriolanus

Act V, Scene III

Cymbeline

Act I, Scene II
Act III, Scene IV
Act III, Scene VI

Hamlet

Act I, Scene IV
Act IV, Scene V

Julius Caesar

Act IV, Scene III

 

King Henry the Fourth, Part I

Act II, Scene II
Act II, Scene IV
Act III, Scene I
Act V, Scene IV

King Henry the Fourth, Part II

Act II, Scene IV
Act III, Scene II
Act IV, Scene IV
Act IV, Scene IV

King Henry the Fifth

Act II, Scene II

King Henry the Sixth, Part I

Act II, Scene III
Act II, Scene IV
Act II, Scene V

 

King Henry the Sixth, Part II

Act I, Scene IV
Act III, Scene III

 

King Henry the Sixth, Part III

Act I, Scene III
Act II, Scene V
Act IV, Scene V
Act V, Scene VII

 

King Henry the Eighth

Act I, Scene III
Act III, Scene I
Act IV, Scene II
Act V, Scene IV

 

King Lear

Act I, Scene I
Act III, Scene IV
Act V, Scene III

 

King Richard the Third

Act III, Scene I
Act IV, Scene III
Act IV, Scene III

 

Measure for Measure

Act II, Scene I
Act V, Scene I

Merchant of Venice

Act II, Scene V
Act V, Scene I

Merry Wives of Windsor

Act I, Scene I
Act II, Scene I
Act III, Scene III
Act IV, Scene II
Act V, Scene V

Much Ado About Nothing

Act III, Scene I
Act IV, Scene I
Act IV, Scene II

Othello

Act II, Scene I
Act V, Scene II
Act V, Scene II

 

Romeo and Juliet

Act I, Scene V
Act IV, Scene V
Act V, Scene III

 

 

Taming of the Shrew

Induction, Scene II
Act II, Scene II

The Tempest

Act I, Scene I
Act I, Scene II
Act IV, Scene I
Act V, Scene I

Timon of Athens

Act IV, Scene III

 

 

Titus Andronicus

Act IV, Scene I

 

 

Troilus & Cressida

Act II, Scene II
Act V, Scene II

 

Two Gentlemen of Verona

Act V, Scene III

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