Exhibition "Shakespeare Gallery" Automatic translate

November 22 at 16.00 in the exhibition hall of the Kaluga Museum of Fine Arts (104 Lenin St., exhibition hall) will open the Shakespeare Gallery exhibition. Images of Shakespeare in English and German engravings of the late XVIII - first third of the XIX century. From the collection of the Kaluga Museum of Fine Arts

The exhibition project is dedicated to the Year of the Theater in Russia and the 455th anniversary of the birth of William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616). The goal of the project is to acquaint the general public with the works of outstanding English and German masters of the 18th – 19th centuries, illustrating such works by Shakespeare as “Hamlet”, “Romeo and Juliet”, “Winter’s Tale”, “How Do You Like It”, “Two Verona” " and others. The audience will be presented works from the famous "Shakespeare Gallery", published at the turn of the XVIII - XIX centuries. John Boydell, as well as a series of illustrations for the play "Hamlet" by the famous German artist Maurice Retch (1828). All engravings are exhibited for the first time.

“A collection of engravings from paintings by British artists illustrating Shakespeare’s dramatic works” or “Shakespeare Gallery” is a unique project carried out by English artist and engraver John Boydell (1719 - 1804) at the turn of the 18th - 19th centuries. Boydell’s idea was to create a permanent exhibition of paintings and graphic works on the subjects of Shakespearean plays. The best artists of that time were involved in the work, including Joshua Reynolds, Heinrich Fussley, William Hamilton, Angelika Kaufman, Thomas Kirk, James Northcourt, John Opie and others. In 1789, in the center of London, on Pall Mall, the Shakespeare Gallery was opened, in which thirty-four paintings on the subjects of twenty-one Shakespeare’s plays were exhibited. Engravings were exhibited in the halls of the first floor of the gallery, and paintings on the second floor. The exposition aroused widespread admiration: critics believed that the artists managed to convey "the spirit of Shakespeare." By 1802, the number of exhibited paintings increased by five times.

The exhibition runs until January 19, 2020.