Merchant of Venice, act III, scene III. Shylock, Antonio, Salanio, and Jailer [graphic] / R. Westall.

Merchant of Venice, act III, scene III. Shylock, Antonio, Salanio, and Jailer [graphic] / R. Westall.

Pressly title: Shylock rebuffing Antonio

1795.

1 painting : oil on canvas ; 82 x 56.2 cm + frame: 40 3/8 x 30 3/8 x 3 3/4 in.

canvas

Title from Boydell Shakespeare Gallery catalog.

Signed and dated lower right: R. Westall 1795

In its original frame.

Visible in the background is pentimento of Venice as seen from the Piazetta.

Canvas measurements when frame removed for conservation in 2025: 32 3/8 x 22 1/8 x 5/8 inches

Friedman 1976, p. 198, n. 388, and p. 242, as "Antonio conducted to Prison".

The tacking edges have been cut, and the painting glued to a second canvas probably in the nineteenth century. There is an old tear, irregularly shaped and 5 inches long, in the upper left quadrant of the picture which had been repaired and the loss filled in an early restoration

Provenance: Commissioned by Alderman John Boydell for the Shakespeare Gallery; sold by lottery 28 January 1805 and won by William Tassie; sold by Christie 17 May 1805, no. 8, as "Antonio conducted to Prison," bought by Crome, Esq. for 9 1/2 guineas (£9.19.6)

G. Michelmore & Co., Rare Books, Autographs, Manuscripts, 5 Royal Opera Arcade, Pall Mall, London SW1, February 1922, £125 (£250 for this picture and no. 58)

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. 47; London, Boydell Shakespeare Gallery, "A Catlogue of the Pictures &c. in the Shakspeare Gallery, Pall-Mall" and "A Catalogue of Small Pictures Painted for the Shakspeare Gallery, Pall-Mall" (only one number sequence for both large and small paintings), 1802, no. 103; London, Boydell Shakespeare Gallery, "The Exhibition of the Shakspeare Galley, Pall-Mall," (last time paintings were shown together; preparatory to their sale), 1805, no. 113; Washington, D.C., Federal Reserve Board, "Eighteenth- and Nineteenth Century English Painting," 1976-1977, no. 23; 'Eliz. View of Italy,' Mar-Jun.93; 'As imagination bodies forth...' [paintings] Oct.28, 1993-Feb 15, 1994.
Washington, D.C., Folger Shakespeare Library, 2004. Voices for Tolerance in an Age of Persecution (catalog entry 33).

Pressly, W.L. Paintings in the Folger Shakespeare Library, 86 (Plate 4)

Great Britain -- England.

FPa83

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