Shakespeare Gallery

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)