In Folio: Rare Volumes in the Stanford University Libraries

John Boydell, 1719-1804.

A Collection of Prints, from Pictures Painted for the Purpose of Illustrating the Dramatic Works of Shakspeare, by the Artists of Great-Britain ….

London: Pub. by John and Josiah Boydell …; printed by W. Bulmer and Co., 1803.

John Boydell, an alderman of London, built his fortune through publishing and printselling. He sold not only in England but extensively on the Continent, especially in France. Boydell’s grandest project was the creation of a monumental Shakespeare gallery of paintings which would showcase and stimulate British art and help support artists using a new “historical” method promulgated by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792). Reynolds had argued that the subject for a painting “ought to be either some eminent instance of heroick action or heroick suffering …;" that there should be something “in the object, in which men are universally concerned, and which powerfully strikes upon the publick sympathy.” “History” painting (vs. portraits of nobility, for example) portrays “man in general” and imparts through interpretation moral lessons for a great number of people. Reynolds’ recommended sources for such painting included Scriptures, history, and the Classics. Boydell’s Shakespeare project, inspired by Reynolds' discourse (though representing material outside Reynolds’ suggested sources), included three components: a series of oil paintings representing scenes from Shakespeare’s plays; a collection of folio engravings based on the paintings, and a new edition in folio of Shakespeare’s plays edited by George Steevens (1736-1800) and illustrated with the plates. Boydell expended an enormous sum on the venture, banking on the popularity of Shakespeare, the expanding interest in British art and illustration, and the Continental markets. The gallery opened at 52 Pall Mall in May of 1789, with some thirty-four paintings by Sir Joshua Reynolds, Benjamin West, Henry Fuseli and others. Paintings were added to the gallery as they were finished. Some criticized the images as not being true to the scenes in the plays; others, including James Gillray (1756-1815) impugned Boydell’s motives in attempting the project. With the outbreak of war between England and France in 1793, and the ongoing turmoil between the two countries, the French market for Boydell’s folio and prints never materialized. The folio edition of the plays was issued in 1802, and an elephant folio (seen here) of plates came out only in 1803. The venture failed and cost Boydell a fortune; the paintings (167 in all) were eventually sold. John Boydell’s goal had been among other things to establish an English School of Historical Painting, and this he accomplished, despite the great financial setbacks. His effort inspired others to follow his lead. In 1790 Henry Fuseli (1741-1825), himself a painter of renown who would contribute to Boydell’s Shakespeare Gallery, announced his plan for a Milton Gallery which would open in 1799, and James Woodmason promoted an Irish Shakespeare Gallery in 1792, which would eventually move to London before closing in 1795.

Although history painting became established in England, its grandness was one of the causes of its demise. William Hogarth (1697-1764) noted the practical drawback to such paintings: “our apartments are too small to contain them.” William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863), finding many of the paintings pompous or pretentious, relished their downfall: “ these items are pieces of canvas from twelve to thirty feet long, representing for the most part personages who never existed … performing actions that never occurred, and dressed in costumes they never could have worn.”

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