Items
Details
Title
Prospero summoning Ariel [graphic] / Robert Smirke.
Created/published
ca. 1820-1825.
Description
1 painting on panel : oil, pencil underdrawing and border ; 14.8 x 12 cm
Associated name
Smirke, Robert, 1752-1845, artist.
Material base
wood
Summary
Having caused his daughter Miranda to fall into deep slumber, Prospero summons the spirit Ariel, who is seen silhouetted against the bright sky. Partially turned away from the viewer, Prospero strains toward his spry servant, the placement of the sleeping Miranda between them setting up an effective tension. The bold, yet graceful, outlines of the preparatory drawing are lost in the painting's more pedestrian rendering.
Note
Five of the six panels from the second set (nos. 64, 68, 69, 70, 71) are initialed in brown paint at lower right "RS." The initials in each case are clearly a later addition placed on top of the old varnish.
The twelve panels at the Folger Shakespeare Library are the only ones known to have survived from a series that originally numbered forty works. Given their small size and monochromatic execution, they were obviously intended from the beginning as designed for engravings, and it is from the engravings that one can reconstruct the entire series. Smirke executed five designed for each of eight plays: The Tempest, Merry Wives of Windsor, Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night, Measure for Measure, I Henry IV, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Romeo and Juliet. The first four plays were published by Rodwell and Martin, Bond Street, London, in 1821 and 1822. Each play also had a title page illustrated with a vignette. Apparently, the remaining illustrations were only published independently of the text. The engravings for the remaining three plays by Hurst, Robinson & Co. and R. Jennings in 1825. This last company published all forty engravings together with a title page that reads Illustrations to Shakespeare by Robert Smirke, R.A. Some of these scenes were reproduced in later editions in engravings of inferior quality.
Because of the similarity in concept and execution, the panels were presumably executed at approximately the same time, even though the scenes were not engraved all at once. Smirke may have executed the designed for The Merry Wives of Windsor first, since in these images he employed heavily incised lines, a practice he soon abandoned. In terms of execution, the two scenes from I Henry IV are among the best, and they may well have been among the last executed.
1 of series of 12.
Preparatory drawing: "Prospero and Ariel," pen and brown ink with brown wash and bodycolor over pencil with gum, 5 15/16 x 14 13/16 in., Paul Mellon Collection, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven.
Title from Pressly.
The twelve panels at the Folger Shakespeare Library are the only ones known to have survived from a series that originally numbered forty works. Given their small size and monochromatic execution, they were obviously intended from the beginning as designed for engravings, and it is from the engravings that one can reconstruct the entire series. Smirke executed five designed for each of eight plays: The Tempest, Merry Wives of Windsor, Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night, Measure for Measure, I Henry IV, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Romeo and Juliet. The first four plays were published by Rodwell and Martin, Bond Street, London, in 1821 and 1822. Each play also had a title page illustrated with a vignette. Apparently, the remaining illustrations were only published independently of the text. The engravings for the remaining three plays by Hurst, Robinson & Co. and R. Jennings in 1825. This last company published all forty engravings together with a title page that reads Illustrations to Shakespeare by Robert Smirke, R.A. Some of these scenes were reproduced in later editions in engravings of inferior quality.
Because of the similarity in concept and execution, the panels were presumably executed at approximately the same time, even though the scenes were not engraved all at once. Smirke may have executed the designed for The Merry Wives of Windsor first, since in these images he employed heavily incised lines, a practice he soon abandoned. In terms of execution, the two scenes from I Henry IV are among the best, and they may well have been among the last executed.
1 of series of 12.
Preparatory drawing: "Prospero and Ariel," pen and brown ink with brown wash and bodycolor over pencil with gum, 5 15/16 x 14 13/16 in., Paul Mellon Collection, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven.
Title from Pressly.
Publications about material
Engravings: F. Engleheart, 4 1/8 x 3 1/8 in. (image), published by Rodwell and Martin, London, 1821.
Provenance
Provenance: Set of six (nos. 60, 61, 62, 63, 66, 67), Maggs Bros., Rare Books, Prints and Autographs, 34-35 Conduit St., New Bond St., London, November 1923, £52.10.0, as by Stothard; set of six (nos. 64, 65, 68, 69, 70, 71), Maggs Bros., Rare Books, Prints and Autographs, 34-35 Conduit St., New Bond St., London, November 1924, £52.10.0, as by Smirke.
Exhibited
Exhibited: Four of the paintings were in the Henry IV exhibition held at Amherst in 1959 as painted by Stothard. Nos. 60 and 61 were in this group, and presumably the other two were nos. 62 and 63, since Falstaff also appears in The Merry Wives of Windsor.
Cited/described in
Pressly, W.L. Paintings in the Folger Shakespeare Library, 69
Genre/form
Paintings.
Place of creation/publication
Great Britain -- England.
Item Details
Call number
FPa65 (range 259, boxed)
Folger-specific note
This record contains unverified data from a re-keying contract and may contain incorrect or incomplete text. Please consult Curator for assistance.