Gender:
N/A
Date and place of birth:
N/A
Date and place of death:
N/A
Worked:
(fl) Founded in 1789
Known places of work:
N/A
Known techniques:
Presumed cut paper in-house
Known materials:
Paper
Frames:
Signature:
N/A
Introduction:
John Boydell founded the Shakespeare Gallery in the City of London around 1789. The Gallery was established to exhibit and sell engraved prints taken from pictures of Shakespearian characters and scenes, some especially commissioned. Jackson mentions that silhouettes were cut by machine at the Gallery in her ‘Dictionary’. McKechnie was of the opinion that this was mainly a sideline to the much bigger engraving business, which had cost over £110,000 to establish and employed over 260 engravers. Interestingly, amongst these were the well-known silhouette artists T. Rider and J.C. Stadler. Unfortunately no examples of Shakespeare Gallery silhouette work appear to have survived.
Additional research about Shakespeare Gallery:
Source: McKechnie (Author of, British Silhouette Artists and their Work 1760-1860)
Shakespeare Gallery (McKechnie Section 1)