Twelfth Night, act IV, scene III. Sebastian, Olivia, and Priest [graphic] / Wm. Hamilton RA.

Twelfth Night, act IV, scene III. Sebastian, Olivia, and Priest [graphic] / Wm. Hamilton RA.

Pressly title: Olivia's proposal

ca. 1794.

1 painting : oil on canvas ; 77.8 x 55 cm + frame ca. 40 x 32 in.

canvas

Title from Boydell Shakespeare Gallery catalog.

Signed at lower right: "Wm Hamilton RA".

Date based on first appearance in Boydell catalog.

Small-format Boydell engraving: W. Angus, published 4 June 1794 for 1802 Boydell edition of Shakespeare's plays, facing p. 81 of Twelfth Night, 10 1/2 x 6 1/2 in. (border of image and margin)

Friedman 1976, p. 188, n. 380, and p. 226.

The tacking edges have been cut and the canvas has been lined onto a second canvas, probably using an aqueous glue adhesive. A 5-inch scratch in the paint film, running diagonally to the left across the figure of Sebastian, was repaired in 1988.

Commissioned by Alderman John Boydell for the Shakespeare Gallery; sold by lottery 28 January 1805 and won by William Tassie; sold by Christie 18 May 1805, no. 25, as "Sebastian, Oliver and Priest-an elegant and fine specimen," bought by A. Paxton, Esq., for 9 guineas (£9.9.0). Acquired by Henry and Emily Folger at the Hoe sale, March 1911, no. 66, $209.

Exhibited: London, Boydell Shakespeare Gallery, "A Catalogue of Small Pictures Painted for the Shakspeare Gallery, Pall-Mall", (bound with the 1796 edition of the catalogue of the large paintings, but the number sequence begins again at "1"), 1796, no. 7; London, Boydell Shakespeare Gallery, "A Catalogue of the Pictures &c.in the Shakspeare Gallery, Pall-Mall and A Catlogue of Small Pictures Painted for the Shakspeare Gallery, Pall-Mall" (only one number sequence for both large and small paintings), 1802, no. 112; London, Boydell Shakespeare Gallery, "The Exhibition of the Shakspeare Galley, Pall-Mall" (last time paintings were shown together; prepatory to their sale), 1805, no. 30; 'As imagination bodies forth...' [paintings] Oct. 28, 1993-Feb.15, 1994.
Washington, D.C., Folger Shakespeare Library, 2007. Marketing Shakespeare.

Pressly, W.L. Paintings in the Folger Shakespeare Library, 35

Great Britain -- England.

FPa31

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