Ferdinand proclaiming his love to Miranda [graphic] / Robert Smirke.

ca. 1820-1825.

1 painting on panel : oil, pencil underdrawing and border ; 14.6 x 11 cm

wood

Ferdinand and the artless Miranda confess their love for each other, while Prospero, made invisible by his magic cloak, looks on unobserved. Miranda's pose of bashful coyness is typical of illustrations of this scene, even if it does not conform all that well to Shakespeare's characterization. The figures and the background undergo slight alterations from the oil sketch to the engraving. In the engraving the left-hand side is closed by a bush and the limb of a slender tree; the hill on the right is replaced with shrubs and a tree that rises behind Prospero; Ferdinand's hat lies on the ground in the center foreground and he is again equipped with a sword; Prospero's hands are clasped; and Miranda's dress is slightly altered, though her pose remains virtually the same. Perhaps in this instance the Folger picture is only the penultimate design, Smirke having produced a final version in the form of either another oil on panel or a drawing.

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.
Title from Pressly.

Engravings: Charles Heath, 4 1/16 x 3 1/16 in. (image), published by Rodwell and Martin, London, 1821. (Two trees have been added to the background: one at the far left and one behind Prospero. Ferdinand's hat has also been added lying on the ground beside him. Prospero looks downward and his hands are clasped together)

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: 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.

Pressly, W.L. Paintings in the Folger Shakespeare Library, 70

Great Britain -- England.

FPa56 (range 259, boxed)

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