Overview

A study of theatrical portraiture through the work of William Hogarth and David Garrick. In 1770 Georg Christoph Lichtenberg remarked, 'What a work could be written on Shakespeare, Hogarth, and Garrick! There is something similar in the genius of all three.' Two-and-a-half centuries on, Robin Simon's highly original and illuminating book takes up the challenge. William Hogarth (1697-1764) and David Garrick (1717-79) closely associated themselves with Shakespeare, embodying a relationship between plays, painting, and performance that had been understood since Antiquity and which shaped the rules for history painting drawn up by the Académie royale in Paris in the seventeenth century. This book offers a fresh examination of theatrical portraits through a close analysis of the pictures and of the texts used in performance. It also examines the central role of the theatre in British culture, while highlighting the significance of Shakespeare, Hogarth, and Garrick in the European Enlightenment and the rise of Romanticism.

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9781913645441

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Reviews

"""fascinating ... provides a new understanding of the genre of theatrical painting.""-- ""Country Life"" ""This handsome and well-illustrated book originated as the prestigious Paul Mellon Lectures, given by Simon in London and New Haven in 2013. Consisting of nine chapters, it offers a highly suggestive guide to the ways in which the Georgian stage inflected British art.""-- ""Literary Review"""

"""This handsome and well-illustrated book originated as the prestigious Paul Mellon Lectures, given by Simon in London and New Haven in 2013. Consisting of nine chapters, it offers a highly suggestive guide to the ways in which the Georgian stage inflected British art.""-- ""Literary Review"""

"""Scholars of the theater, Shakespeare, portraiture, history painting, and the 18th century will find much in this book to advance their study. Deeply researched and astutely written, it is lavishly illustrated with 207 plates, making the work a delight for both eye and mind.""-- ""Choice"" ""As such, it is a valuable and enjoyable contribution to theatrical and art history. . . . Though they are placed firmly within theatrical and artistic history, Simon's three titular subjects nonetheless emerge enriched, providing a wholly convincing justification for Simon's suggestion that theatre, as the 'single greatest shared cultural experience' of 18th-century Britain, is essential to understanding its art.""-- ""Apollo"" ""Fascinating . . . Provides a new understanding of the genre of theatrical painting.""-- ""Country Life"" ""[Robin Simon] furthers our understanding of Garrick's relation to Shakespeare by bringing on stage another member of the cast: the painter William Hogarth. An abundantly illustrated volume sheds light on 'the significance of Shakespeare, Hogarth and Garrick within the European Enlightenment and the rise of Romanticism.'""-- ""The New Criterion"" ""This handsome and well-illustrated book originated as the prestigious Paul Mellon Lectures, given by Simon in London and New Haven in 2013. Consisting of nine chapters, it offers a highly suggestive guide to the ways in which the Georgian stage inflected British art.""-- ""Literary Review"""

Author Information

Robin Simon FSA is editor of the British Art Journal and author of Hogarth, France and British Art: the rise of the arts in eighteenth-century Britain. He is visiting professor in the Department of English, University College London, and a professorial research fellow in the history of art at Buckingham University.

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