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Lot Essay
Richard Westall was born 1765 in Hertfordshire and took up an apprenticeship with John Thompson, a silver engraver in Cheapside. He soon came to the attention of John Alefounder (1757-1794), a miniature painter who encouraged him take up painting. He enrolled at the Royal Academy schools in 1785 and was elected R.A. in 1794. He exhibited a large number of paintings at the Royal Academy and the British Institution including portraits, historical and literary subjects and rustic genre scenes. In the early 1790s he began executing book illustrations, which was to become one of his principle occupations. Towards the end of his life he was appointed painting and drawing instructor to Princess Victoria. He died in London in 1836.
Westall painted Shakespearean subjects on several occasions; his first project was the illustrations for John Boydell's lavish publication of Shakespeare's Works, which occupied him from 1795-1802. He subsequently painted five pictures for Boydell's Shakepeare Gallery, all of which were engraved. The subject of writer's lives was a popular one with Westall; he exhibited two pictures of Milton at the Royal Academy: Milton composing Paradise Lost, 1802, and Milton, while a youth, discovered sleeping in a wood, by an Italian lady of quality, 1830. The present painting is one of two allegorical Shakespearean subjects, the other The Birth of Shakespeare, 1802, now hangs in the National Gallery, London.
In his apotheosis, Shakespeare is depicted with the Muses Thalia (comedy) and Melpomene (tradegy), who are without their usual attributes of a scroll or viol and a sword or dagger.
Westall painted Shakespearean subjects on several occasions; his first project was the illustrations for John Boydell's lavish publication of Shakespeare's Works, which occupied him from 1795-1802. He subsequently painted five pictures for Boydell's Shakepeare Gallery, all of which were engraved. The subject of writer's lives was a popular one with Westall; he exhibited two pictures of Milton at the Royal Academy: Milton composing Paradise Lost, 1802, and Milton, while a youth, discovered sleeping in a wood, by an Italian lady of quality, 1830. The present painting is one of two allegorical Shakespearean subjects, the other The Birth of Shakespeare, 1802, now hangs in the National Gallery, London.
In his apotheosis, Shakespeare is depicted with the Muses Thalia (comedy) and Melpomene (tradegy), who are without their usual attributes of a scroll or viol and a sword or dagger.