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  Home>Stories>William Shakespeare’s Plays in Art
      

      
      Search Art & Society William Shakespeare’s Plays in Art min read
 Some of the characters and plots in William Shakespeare’s works come directly from ancient and modern sources. Our Library exhibition Will’s World—European Literature in Shakespeare’s time explores the classic and modern writing that inspired the English playwright. And in the 400 years since his first folio was published, Shakespeare’s plays have in turn inspired not only actors but also artists. Explore a range of artists’ interpretations of his most popular plays. Click the link to related scenes to read text from the Folger Shakespeare Library.  Two Gentlemen of Verona
 A young woman wearing a long gown strides toward us down carpeted stairs, in front of an entourage of several musicians and attendants in this square painting. The men and woman all have pale skin. The woman's dress has a long, cream-white skirt, and the white bodice is trimmed with gold and jewels. The vibrant ruby-red, puffy sleeves are gathered at the elbow and fit tightly over the forearms. She wears a red and gold headpiece over her bound, chestnut-brown hair. She has large brown eyes, a narrow nose, smooth skin, and her deep pink lips are closed. She looks slightly to our left and up. A white pouch with a cinched opening hangs from her waist. The pointed toe of one shoe peeks out under her skirt, which she lifts with both hands. Three men stand behind her in a line to our left, and another stands or walks behind her to our right. The man closest to us on the left is cut off by the edge of the painting. He wears a calf-length tunic with vertical bands alternating between cream-white and a gold-on-red pattern. He wears a wide-brimmed hat and holds a white ostrich-feather fan dangling from a string as he looks at the woman. The man behind him wears a floppy crimson-red hat and red costume with decorative slashes. He holds a tiny brown dog and a scroll to his chest, and he cuts his eyes toward the woman. Behind him, in the shadows, a bareheaded man plays a lute. A second lute player, to the right, wears a voluminous scarlet-red hood and robe and his lips seem parted as if singing. The rug beneath them is patterned with an angular design of red against forest green. A fluted, parchment-colored column encloses the scene to our right. The tall base of the column is elaborately carved with imgainary creatures. The fifth man, wearing black over a white shirt and white stockings, leans his elbow on the column base so his body faces our left in profile. He holds his hat in his right hand and clutches a book to his chest with the other. He has chin-length brown hair and mustache. He tips his head toward and looks at the woman.
      
        
        
            
         	  Edwin Austin Abbey, "Who Is Sylvia? What Is She, That All the Swains Commend Her?", 1896-1899; reworked 1900, oil on canvas, Corcoran Collection (William A. Clark Collection), 2014.136.19
 As a teenager American artist Edwin Austin Abbey used a pen name from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. As a young adult, he illustrated hundreds of Shakespeare scenes magazines. “Who Is Sylvia? What Is She, That All the Swains Commend Her?” is one of seven large paintings of Shakespeare scenes that Abbey made in 1890. The title echoes a song in act 4, scene 2 of The Two Gentleman in Verona. Proteus, one of the play’s main characters, sings the poem about his love Sylvia. Unfortunately for Proteus, “all the swains” (or suitors) are in love with Sylvia—including his friend Valentine. In Abbey’s painting, Sylvia lifts the skirts of her Italian Renaissance–style gown as she walks through a room of men enchanted by her presence.  King Lear
 Explore the entire book here. William Shakespeare and Claire Van Vliet, The Tragedie of King Lear, Bangor: Theodore Press, 1986, National Gallery of Art Library
 Canadian American painter, illustrator, printmaker, and typographer Claire Van Vliet paired her dramatic woodcuts with key characters and scenes from King Lear. She focused on faces and expressions, bringing out the emotions and drama of the text. Van Vliet’s woodcuts show Lear gradually descending into madness. By act 4, scene 6, he has wild hair, a ragged beard, and a mystified look on his face. In the scene, a wandering Lear comes upon his son Edgar and his loyal nobleman Gloucester. The two don’t recognize him, but they do recognize his voice. When Gloucester asks whether this is the king, Lear replies, “Ay, every inch a king. / When I do stare, see how the subject quakes.” His mad expression in Van Vliet’s woodcut captures the full meaning of that line.
 In the Library: Will’s World—European Literature in Shakespeare’s Time
						
							See a selection of old and rare books from our special collections of texts that inspired playwrights like Shakespeare.

						
						
							Plan a visit
 Romeo and Juliet
 David Young Cameron, The Hills, probably 1925/1930, watercolor over graphite, Rosenwald Collection, 1943.3.2569
 At first glance, Scottish artist David Young Cameron’s watercolor looks like an abstracted rocky landscape. But Cameron wrote these words on the back of the paper: “Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day / stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.” The line comes from the beginning of act 3, scene 5 of Romeo and Juliet. Juliet pleads with Romeo not to leave, assuring him that they have more time before sunrise. But Romeo is fearful that they will be discovered, saying in the next line, “I must be gone and live, or stay and die.” The two never see each other alive again.  Macbeth
 Kyra Markham, Lady Macbeth (Self-Portrait), 1935, lithograph, Reba and Dave Williams Collection, Gift of Reba and Dave Williams, 2008.115.3345
 As a young woman, Kyra Markham acted professionally in American theaters and movies. In her 30s, she shifted her focus to art. She became known for her prints and lithographs and worked for the Federal Arts Project. Her acting experience gives Markham a unique perspective on interpreting Shakespeare. In this print, she shows herself as Lady Macbeth. Her gaze is piercing, and behind her, billowing flames light up a castle wall. Does the composition show Lady Macbeth’s strength? Or does it come from the part of the play in which her guilt has driven her to sleepwalking? Other interpretations of Macbeth: Wilhelm Lehmbruck, Macbeth V (The Vision of Lady Macbeth)
Benton Murdoch Spruance, Macbeth - Act V.  Hamlet
 Explore the entire book here. Dorothy N. Stewart (Dorothy Newkirk), W. Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, 1st ed. Santa Fe, New Mexico: Pictograph Press, 1949. Print. National Gallery of Art Library.
 American artist and printmaker Dorothy Newkirk Stewart made this mesmerizing woodcut book of an abridged Hamlet in 1949. Stewart wove her colorful prints with the text, creating a book that almost reads like a contemporary graphic novel. This page starts with act 4, scene 5. King Claudius enters to find Ophelia singing. He grows worried that she has had a mental break after the death of her father and son. Moving right, Stewart shows a scene in which Horatio reads a letter from his friend Hamlet. The artist simply shows a letter held in a hand. Below the letter and encircled in a bubble, an image tells the letter’s story of Hamlet being taken captive on a pirate ship. Other interpretations of Hamlet: Eugène Delacroix, Hamlet and Ophelia (Act III, Scene I)
Honoré Daumier, Hamlet
Edouard Manet, The Tragic Actor (Rouvière as Hamlet)  A Midsummer’s Night Dream
 After Domenico di Michelino, Dante as the poet of the Divine Comedy, 1417-1491, heliogravure, Department of Image Collections, National Gallery of Art Library, Washington, DC
 This print of a scene in A Midsummer Night’s Dream is based on a painting by Sir Edwin Landseer. Landseer was best known for painting animals, and he picked the perfect play to display those skills. The fairy queen Titania is under the spell of a potion (from the flower she holds in her hand) that made her fall in love with the first creature she saw—Nick Bottom, a man with the head of an ass. Landseer painted the ass’s head with precise detail and accuracy. The scene comes from act 3, scene 1. The pair is in the woods, Titania resting her head on Bottom’s shoulder. They are surrounded by faeries and animals. Titania asks the fairies Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Mote, and Mustardseed to care for her new love. The painting was exhibited and widely admired at London’s Royal Academy in 1851. Even Queen Victoria called the work “a gem, beautiful, fairy-like and graceful.” Lewis Carroll also enjoyed the painting when he saw it in 1857, noting in his diary that Bottom’s head and the white rabbit were “wonderful points.” Other interpretations of A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Francis B. Shields, Midsummer Night Dream
Harriet Goodhue Hosmer, Puck  Twelfth Night
 Henry Peach Robinson, She Never Told Her Love, 1857, albumen print, Paul Mellon Fund, 2007.29.40
 In Twelfth Night, Viola is rescued from a shipwreck. She disguises herself as a young man, Cesario, and becomes a page (servant) for the Duke of Orsino.In act 2, scene 4, the duke is lovesick for a woman that doesn’t love him back. Cesario tries to give the duke hope that his beloved might just have difficulty expressing her feelings. Cesario (actually Viola) tells a story about his sister (actually herself) who died of lovesickness (actually alive—and in love with the duke). The title of Henry Peach Robinson’s photograph She Never Told Her Lovecomes from that story. In Robinson’s photograph, his model acts as a young woman dying of consumption, presumably with a broken heart. His work recalls Cesario/Viola’s description of the sister: “She never told her love, / But let concealment, like a worm i' th’ bud, / Feed on her damask cheek. She pined in thought, / And with a green and yellow melancholy / She sat like Patience on a monument, / Smiling at grief.” Viola’s story isn’t true, though—she is talking about herself and her love for the duke. Other interpretations of Twelfth Night: Sol Wilson, The Twelfth Night
 Discover more stories
 Poems about Art
						
							Dive into nine new compositions by celebrated American poets inspired by art in our collection.
 Going through Hell? See Dante’s “The Divine Comedy” in Art
						
							Travel with artists through Dante’s Nine Circles of Hell.
 Free Online Art Learning Resources for Students and Teachers
						
							Explore a selection of activities, lesson plans, and videos for educators and students of all ages.
 December 08, 2023








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