Will & Jane: Shakespeare, Austen, and the Cult of Celebrity Exhibition Material: Difference between revisions

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==== Items Included ====
==== Items Included ====
'''Unknown, after Thomas Gainsborough (1727-88). ''David Garrick Leaning on a Bust of Shakespeare. '''''Oil on canvas, after 1769. The original painting by Gainsborough was destroyed by fire in 1946. FPb27.
Unknown, after Thomas Gainsborough (1727-88). ''David Garrick Leaning on a Bust of Shakespeare.''' '''''Oil on canvas, after 1769. The original painting by Gainsborough was destroyed by fire in 1946. FPb27.


=== Museum Spectacle ===
=== '''Museum Spectacle''' ===
'''The first-ever museum dedicated to The Bard was the Shakespeare Gallery, built by London entrepreneur and publisher John Boydell in 1789.''' 
'''The first-ever museum dedicated to The Bard was the Shakespeare Gallery, built by London entrepreneur and publisher John Boydell in 1789.''' 


Until financial difficulties forced it to close its doors in 1804, the gallery was a popular tourist attraction and charged visitors a shilling to see life-sized paintings of famous scenes commissioned from contemporary artists. The gallery had its own shop on the ground floor and sold large engravings of the pictures (like today’s museum posters) as well as subscriptions to a grand, multi-volume edition of Shakespeare’s works. The whole enterprise, like the 1769 Jubilee, was a financial failure despite its significant cultural influence on Shakespeare’s popular reception.
Until financial difficulties forced it to close its doors in 1804, the gallery was a popular tourist attraction and charged visitors a shilling to see life-sized paintings of famous scenes commissioned from contemporary artists. The gallery had its own shop on the ground floor and sold large engravings of the pictures (like today’s museum posters) as well as subscriptions to a grand, multi-volume edition of Shakespeare’s works. The whole enterprise, like the 1769 Jubilee, was a financial failure despite its significant cultural influence on Shakespeare’s popular reception.


The building that housed the Shakespeare Gallery was demolished in 1870 and the bulk of Boydell’s paintings, sold by lottery and subsequently auctioned off in 1805, are now considered lost. A paper lottery ticket (in nearby case) and George Romney’s canvas of the “Infant Shakespeare” at the exhibition entrance (also reproduced nearby) are rare survivors from the gallery’s dissolution.


Touch the screen and join Jane in a visit to the Shakespeare Gallery in 1796.


The building that housed the Shakespeare Gallery was demolished in 1870 and the bulk of Boydell’s paintings, sold by lottery and subsequently auctioned off in 1805, are now considered lost. A paper lottery ticket (in nearby case) and George Romney’s canvas of the “Infant Shakespeare” at the exhibition entrance (also reproduced nearby) are rare survivors from the gallery’s dissolution. 
==== <br> Items Included ====
George Romney (1734-1802). ''The Infant Shakespeare Attended by Nature and the Passions''. Oil on canvas London, 1791-92


FPa49. Reproduction – see the original on this wall at the exhibition entrance 




Touch the screen and join Jane in a visit to the Shakespeare Gallery in 1796. 
This painting reimagines the birth of Shakespeare as The Nativity. When first engraved, this image carried the following explanation: “Nature is represented with her face unveiled to her favourite Child, who is placed between Joy and Sorrow. On the right hand of Nature are Love, Hatred & Jealousy: on her left hand, Anger, Envy, & Fear.


=== Spectacle at 200 ===
An advertisement for a Shakespearean horse race (2) illustrates the odd range of activities—from fireworks to concerts—planned for the '''Shakespeare Jubilee in Stratford''' in 1769, which was ultimately rained out. The portrait of Garrick, master of ceremonies, reverently contemplating a miniature of Shakespeare’s likeness, links the star status of actor and playwright. (1)


The planned parade of Shakespeare’s characters (3) never happened at the Jubilee, but was regularly performed at London’s Drury Lane Theatre. Events that did happen, such as Garrick’s recitation of his ode to Shakespeare (9), “the God of our idolatry,” circulated far beyond the soggy audience at Stratford.


George Romney (1734-1802) 
Similarly, the paintings that John Boydell had assembled for the '''first-ever Shakespeare Gallery''' (5, 8), beginning in 1789, continued to be disseminated through engravings to an even larger audience after the museum closed in 1804.


The Infant Shakespeare Attended by Nature and the Passions 
'''The televised “bonnet drama” functions as the modern equivalent to these Georgian spectacles.''' In particular, the BBC’s 6-part television broadcast of Pride and Prejudice in 1995 (7) proved a watershed moment in the popular reception of Austen, as commemorated here by a bonnet (6) worn during that production’s final wedding scene.


Oil on canvas London, 1791-92 
==== Items Included ====
1) Joseph Saunders after Benjamin Van der Gucht. ''Mr. Garrick as Steward of the Stratford Jubilee, September 1769''. Great Britain, 1773. Engraving. ART 242301. 


FPa49 
2) Bill of advertisement for horse race. Stratford, 1769. PR2923 1769 R2 Cage 


Reproduction – see the original on this wall at the exhibition entrance 
3) Anonymous. ''The Procession at the Jubilee at Stratford upon Avon!'' Oxford, 1769. Engraving. Folger Garrickiana Maggs no. 198


4) Signed “F. Westwood” Medallions commemorating the Jubilee, 1769 


Recto: “We shall not look upon his like again.” Verso: “Jubilee at Stratford in honour and to the memory of Shakespeare, Sept. 1769, D.G., Steward” 


This painting reimagines the birth of Shakespeare as The Nativity. When first engraved, this image carried the following explanation: “Nature is represented with her face unveiled to her favourite Child, who is placed between Joy and Sorrow. On the right hand of Nature are Love, Hatred & Jealousy: on her left hand, Anger, Envy, & Fear.” 
Coin Collection Env. 29 
 
 
 
5) John Boydell (1719-1804) 
 
Ticket for his Shakespeare Lottery 
 
London, 1804-05 
 
No. 320 of approximately 22,000 lottery tickets sold for the inventory of 167 paintings during the dissolution of the gallery Y.d.295 
 
 
 
6) Bonnet from 1995 BBC production of Pride and Prejudice 
 
Worn by actress Susannah Harker as Jane Bennet 
 
London, 1995 
 
Property of Cosprop Ltd., London 
 
 
 
7) Promotional image for BBC’s Pride and Prejudice (1995) 
 
DVD Box 
 
Reproduction 
 
Loan courtesy of private collector 
 
 
 
8) Francis Wheatley (1747-1801) 
 
Boydell Shakespeare Gallery 
 
Watercolor on paper, 1790 
 
Reproduction 
 
Courtesy of the Victoria & Albert Museum 
 
 
 
9) Mr Garrick Reciting the Ode, in honor of Shakespeare 
 
England, after 1769
 
Line engraving 
 
ART FILE G241 no.

Revision as of 15:14, 28 November 2016

This article offers a comprehensive list of each piece included in Will & Jane: Shakespeare, Austen, and the Cult of the Celebrity, one of the Exhibitions at the Folger.

Introduction

Will & Jane tracks the parallel afterlives of two of the most popular writers in English: William Shakespeare (1564-1616) and Jane Austen (1775-1817). In 2016, we can consider the rise of literary celebrity in real time. This year marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death and the approaching 200th anniversary of Austen’s.

Modern celebrity culture was born in the late 18th century when a growing entertainment industry staged popular spectacles and exhibitions that fanned the flames of Shakespeare’s early reputation. Similarly, starting in the late 20th century landmark TV mini-series and a wealth of films have done for Austen as she nears her bicentenary what theater and public entertainments did for Shakespeare at his 200 mark.

Two writers, acclaimed for their works, have soared in public recognition, transforming into cultural superheroes. The process of fandom leaves a trail of material objects— from the sublime to the ridiculous. Literary celebrity, from its 18th-century beginnings, is as much about relics and souvenirs as about books and plays.

Explore how today’s Cult of Jane resembles the first exuberant wave of “Bardolatry” (coined from “the Bard” and “idolatry”) in Will & Jane.

Curated by Janine Barchas (University of Texas at Austin) and Kristina Straub (Carnegie Mellon University) with assistance from Georgianna Ziegler, Louis B. Thalheimer Associate Librarian and Head of Reference for the Folger Shakespeare Library

Will & Jane is made possible by the generous support of May Liang, Roger and Robin Millay, the Winton and Carolyn Blount Exhibition Fund of the Folger Shakespeare Library, and supporters of The Wonder of Will: 400 Years of Shakespeare including The Lord Browne of Madingley, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Share Fund, and other generous donors.

[Painting to the right]

Items Included

George Romney (1734-1802).The Infant Shakespeare Attended by Nature and the Passions. Oil on canvas. London, 1791-92. FPa49

This painting, which reimagines the birth of Shakespeare as The Nativity, was cut down on all four sides by a previous owner. When it hung as a centerpiece in John Boydell’s Shakespeare Gallery in the 1790s it would have been even larger. To see this painting in its original Georgian context, go to the What Jane Saw touch screen at media station 1. 

Biography

Will and Jane are beloved not just for their writing, but for the people that readers imagine them to have been. The fact that we know so little about their lives or what they looked like has meant that readers have felt the need to imagine much. Our desire to know these authors intimately has led to over two centuries of trafficking in the images, lives, and loves of Will and Jane. We have stocked libraries, museums, movie theaters, and gift shops with portraits, souvenirs, forged love letters, and bio-pics that embody what we want them to have been like. Jane Austen lived through the first wave of Bardolatry. In some of her work, we see glimpses of one author’s participation in the fan culture around another.

Picturing the Author

Author portraits and biographies play important roles in Will’s and Jane’s reception as literary celebrities, yet their earliest portraits (in the nearby reproductions) provide a base for imaginative depictions rather than definitive images. The portraits gathered here cluster around the first flush of their fame, 200 years after the authors’ respective deaths.

Even though the well-known Droeshout engraving from the First Folio in 1623 is now the most “authoritative” and widely-circulated image of Shakespeare, it was created after his death in 1616.

In portraits from the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Shakespeare is imagined as an aristocratic gentleman in lace collar, a more down-to-earth working artisan, and a romantically poetic dreamer. Painters exercised their imaginations—and contemporary ideas about Shakespeare—with artistic license that seems unconstrained by historical accuracy.

Several images of Austen were made during her lifetime, but most were considered inadequate for use as a public author portrait—too informal or too young. In 1869, Austen’s family commissioned an artist to prettify a small candid sketch of Jane by her sister Cassandra (in the nearby reproductions), originally made around 1810. Re-engraved in 1870 for use as a frontispiece to a memoir by James Edward Austen-Leigh, this Victorian version has become the public face of Jane we recognize today. It will be even more widely circulated when it appears on the British ten-pound note next year.

For both authors, ongoing portrait controversies continue the public’s longing for intimacy with the elusive “real” author.

Items Included

1)   Parian bust of Shakespeare. 19th Century. ART 248540

2)   LOAN. Anonymous. Marble bust of Austen on wooden base. Late 20th century. Loan courtesy of Joan Doyle, Member of the Jane Austen Society of North America, Eastern Pennsylvania Region

The best-known public images of Shakespeare and Austen are the first engravings used as author portraits to front their printed works. Both are posthumous images. Left: Martin Droeshout’s portrait of Shakespeare for the title page of the First Folio (1623). Right: The engraving made for James Edward Austen-Leigh’s A Memoir of Jane Austen (1870).

  • REPRODUCTION. Martin Droeshout (b. 1601). William Shakespeare from the title page of the First Folio. London, 1623. Engraving.
  • REPRODUCTION. After Cassandra Austen (1773-1845) . Portrait of Jane Austen in J. E. Austen-Leigh, A Memoir of Jane Austen. London: Richard Bentley, 1870. Engraving. Reproduction courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London.

[Shakespeare Portraits]

1)   Anonymous.The Staunton Portrait of Shakespeare. Oil on canvas. English, ca. 1770. FPs18.

2)   Anonymous. The Lumley Portrait of Shakespeare . Oil on canvas English, 18th century. FPs23.

3)   Anonymous.The Dexter Portrait of Shakespeare. Oil on panel. 19th century. FPs10.

[Austen Portraits]

From left to right, these works represent the progression of Austen’s public image, from original sketch in 1810 to engraved public portrait in 1870.

1)   REPRODUCTION. Cassandra Austen (1773-1845). Jane Austen drawn from life. Pencil on paper. ca. 1810. Image courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London.

2)   REPRODUCTION. James Andrews, of Maidenhead Jane Austen. Watercolor on paper. 1869. Image courtesy of 19th Century Rare Book and Photograph Shop, Stevenson, Maryland.

3)  REPRODUCTION. Jane Austen Engraving as published in James Edward Austen-Leigh (1798-1874). A Memoir of Jane Austen. London: R. Bentley, 1870. Image courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Missing Lives and Loves

The first biographies of Will and Jane prefaced editions of their works. Editor Nicholas Rowe wrote Shakespeare’s earliest biography in 1709 (1), while Austen’s was authored by her brother Henry for Northanger Abbey and Persuasion in December 1817 (2). In both instances, the authors’ lives take up little print space relative to the bulk of their work, yet these slim accounts remain foundational.

The shared myth of humble origins is literally painted onto souvenirs with images of the authors’ respective birthplaces. (3 & 4)

Fan culture tends to fill in biographical gaps with romance. A fake love letter from Shakespeare to Anne Hathaway, forged in the 1790s by William Henry Ireland (5), and the manuscript pages from Tom Stoppard’s 1990s screenplay for Shakespeare in Love (6) are just two examples of the continuing desire to give Will the love life for which we have so little evidence. Recently, the film Becoming Jane (7) similarly conjured a romance for Jane.

Items Included

1)   Nicholas Rowe (1674-1718).The works of Mr. William Shakespear… with an account of the life and writing of the author. London: Jacob Tonson, 1709. PR2752 1709a copy 1 Sh. Col.

2)   LOAN. Jane Austen (1775-1817). Northanger Abbey: and Persuasion. London: John Murray, 1818. First edition in original boards. Loan courtesy of Goucher College Library. PR4034 N7

3)   Pomade jar depicting Shakespeare’s house. Prattware jar with lid, ceramic. England, 19th century. ART Inv. 1056

4)   LOAN. Pillbox depicting Steventon Rectory (Jane Austen’s birthplace). Silver-trimmed ceramic, with image on lid. England, late 20th century. Loan courtesy of Goucher College Library.

5)   William Henry Ireland (1775-1835). Forged letter from William Shakespeare to Anne Hathaway. Manuscript, ca. 1790s. S.b.157, no.6

6)   LOAN. Tom Stoppard (b. 1937). Typescript page and manuscript scrap of screenplay drafts for Shakespeare in Love. August 1992. Stoppard 51.6.1, Stoppard 50.9.1. Loan courtesy of the Tom Stoppard Collection, Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin.

7)  REPRODUCTION. Becoming Jane. Miramax, 2007. Film poster. Loan courtesy of private collector

Jane's Shakespeare

Jane Austen, born in 1775, experienced Shakespeare’s early rise to celebrity status first-hand. She read and admired his work, referenced him in her fictions, and saw his plays performed on London’s stage. In her novel Mansfield Park (1814), Austen’s characters “all talk Shakespeare” while rehearsing amateur theatricals. (7) Three of her fictional characters in that novel, Yates and the Crawfords, share surnames with famous Shakespearean actors of the 18th century. The playbill on display announces the performance of The Merchant of Venice that Jane saw on 5 March 1814. (1) In a letter to her sister, she deftly describes that night’s performance by Edmund Kean. (6) Kean’s portrait on a snuff box contrasts with an engraving of him as he looked in the role of Shylock. (2& 3) A paper “pinup” of actress Mrs. Crawford and a jewelry pin of diva Mrs. Yates give further evidence of the emerging culture of celebrity in which Austen was both witness and participant. (4 & 5)

Items Included

1)    Playbill for Merchant of Venice. Drury Lane Theatre, March 5, 1814. Bill Box G2D84 1813-1814. No. 141. Copy 2.

2)   Samuel Raven (1775-1847), artist. Circular table snuff box painted with portrait of Edmund Kean (1787-1833). Papier mâché. English, ca. 1822. ART 241306

3)   Henry Hoppner Meyer (1783-1847), printmaker. Edmund Kean as Shylock. Great Britain, 19th century. Mezzotint. ART File K24.4 no.39 part 1

4)   Mrs. Crawford in the Character of Cleopatra. Stipple engraving of tragedienne Ann Barry Crawford (1734-1801). Great Britain, late 18th century. ART File C899 no.7

5)   Mary Ann Yates (1728-1784), Actress. Depicted on medallion en grisaille. English, ca. 1777. ART 241267

6)   LOAN. Jane Austen (1775-1817). Letter signed to her sister Cassandra Austen. March 5-8, 1814. Manuscript. MA 977.36. Loan courtesy of The Morgan Library & Museum, New York. Purchased by J.P. Morgan, Jr. in 1920.

7)   LOAN. Jane Austen (1775-1817). Mansfield Park. London: T. Egerton, 1814. First edition in original boards. PR4034 M3 1814 v.1-3. Loan courtesy of Goucher College Special Collections.

Austen as Playwright?

No manuscript of a complete Shakespeare play in his handwriting survives, but a play in Austen’s hand does. 200 years later, theater and film professionals dramatize her novels, turning them into scripts for stage and screen.

This lighthearted dramatization sets scenes from the 1755 novel Sir Charles Grandison by Samuel Richardson—one of Jane Austen’s favorite writers. (1) While it remains uncertain whether Austen authored this adaptation in whole or in part (family legend held that her niece Anna was author and Aunt Jane a mere amanuensis), it does give us evidence of Austen’s participation in just the type of amateur theatricals that she seems to critique in her fiction.

Biographers agree that the young Jane was an active participant in family theatricals throughout her youth at the Steventon rectory, where the Austens staged plays in their barn. The back-stage tomfoolery in Mansfield Park does not make Austen anti-theatrical.

Just as Austen turned Richardson’s novel into a play, others have realized the dramatic potential of her novels. Actress and screenwriter Emma Thompson adapted Sense and Sensibility for the silver screen in 1995 (2). Thompson scripted and starred in the film, which earned her an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress.

Items Included

1)   LOAN. Jane Austen (1775-1817). Sir Charles Grandison, or the Happy Man. A Comedy. Manuscript in five sections, of varying sizes, pinned separately. ca. 1791, ca. 1800. 792 AUS. Loan courtesy of Chawton House Library.

2)   LOAN. Emma Thompson (b. 1959). Screenplay of Sense and Sensibility. Author’s annotated typescript. 1995. Loan courtesy of Emma Thompson.

Making of Literary Celebrity

Will and Jane’s respective celebrities were each kicked off by media extravaganzas marking, roughly, the 200th anniversaries of their lives and work.

In 1769, David Garrick organized a Shakespeare Jubilee in Stratford-upon-Avon, while in 1789, in London, John Boydell opened the Shakespeare Gallery. The television “bonnet drama” is to Austen as the Jubilee and Boydell’s Gallery were to Shakespeare. Assisted by Hollywood, the BBC awarded Austen, and her characters, special star status just as she approached her bicentenary.

Reverence for Will and Jane has swelled into numerous expressions of devotion— from pilgrimage routes to the collection of “relics.” This exhibition would not exist without the committed collecting activities that such devotion has inspired.

The claiming of Will and Jane as national (and international) icons is another offshoot of their celebrity effect. Their portraits grace money and stamps, each has been translated into a host of languages, and both marched to war as reading material for active duty military during two World Wars. 

The Best Friend

David Garrick, actor and theater manager, leans familiarly on a bust of Shakespeare, summing up the integral relationship between Shakespeare’s growing fame and the cult of theatrical celebrity that emerged in the 18th century. Garrick’s status in the British theater and Shakespeare’s reputation as “the English Bard” proved mutually beneficial, strengthening the celebrity around both men.

Items Included

Unknown, after Thomas Gainsborough (1727-88). David Garrick Leaning on a Bust of Shakespeare. Oil on canvas, after 1769. The original painting by Gainsborough was destroyed by fire in 1946. FPb27.

Museum Spectacle

The first-ever museum dedicated to The Bard was the Shakespeare Gallery, built by London entrepreneur and publisher John Boydell in 1789. 

Until financial difficulties forced it to close its doors in 1804, the gallery was a popular tourist attraction and charged visitors a shilling to see life-sized paintings of famous scenes commissioned from contemporary artists. The gallery had its own shop on the ground floor and sold large engravings of the pictures (like today’s museum posters) as well as subscriptions to a grand, multi-volume edition of Shakespeare’s works. The whole enterprise, like the 1769 Jubilee, was a financial failure despite its significant cultural influence on Shakespeare’s popular reception.

The building that housed the Shakespeare Gallery was demolished in 1870 and the bulk of Boydell’s paintings, sold by lottery and subsequently auctioned off in 1805, are now considered lost. A paper lottery ticket (in nearby case) and George Romney’s canvas of the “Infant Shakespeare” at the exhibition entrance (also reproduced nearby) are rare survivors from the gallery’s dissolution.

Touch the screen and join Jane in a visit to the Shakespeare Gallery in 1796.


Items Included

George Romney (1734-1802). The Infant Shakespeare Attended by Nature and the Passions. Oil on canvas London, 1791-92

FPa49. Reproduction – see the original on this wall at the exhibition entrance 


This painting reimagines the birth of Shakespeare as The Nativity. When first engraved, this image carried the following explanation: “Nature is represented with her face unveiled to her favourite Child, who is placed between Joy and Sorrow. On the right hand of Nature are Love, Hatred & Jealousy: on her left hand, Anger, Envy, & Fear.”

Spectacle at 200

An advertisement for a Shakespearean horse race (2) illustrates the odd range of activities—from fireworks to concerts—planned for the Shakespeare Jubilee in Stratford in 1769, which was ultimately rained out. The portrait of Garrick, master of ceremonies, reverently contemplating a miniature of Shakespeare’s likeness, links the star status of actor and playwright. (1)

The planned parade of Shakespeare’s characters (3) never happened at the Jubilee, but was regularly performed at London’s Drury Lane Theatre. Events that did happen, such as Garrick’s recitation of his ode to Shakespeare (9), “the God of our idolatry,” circulated far beyond the soggy audience at Stratford.

Similarly, the paintings that John Boydell had assembled for the first-ever Shakespeare Gallery (5, 8), beginning in 1789, continued to be disseminated through engravings to an even larger audience after the museum closed in 1804.

The televised “bonnet drama” functions as the modern equivalent to these Georgian spectacles. In particular, the BBC’s 6-part television broadcast of Pride and Prejudice in 1995 (7) proved a watershed moment in the popular reception of Austen, as commemorated here by a bonnet (6) worn during that production’s final wedding scene.

Items Included

1) Joseph Saunders after Benjamin Van der Gucht. Mr. Garrick as Steward of the Stratford Jubilee, September 1769. Great Britain, 1773. Engraving. ART 242301. 

2) Bill of advertisement for horse race. Stratford, 1769. PR2923 1769 R2 Cage 

3) Anonymous. The Procession at the Jubilee at Stratford upon Avon! Oxford, 1769. Engraving. Folger Garrickiana Maggs no. 198

4) Signed “F. Westwood” Medallions commemorating the Jubilee, 1769 

Recto: “We shall not look upon his like again.” Verso: “Jubilee at Stratford in honour and to the memory of Shakespeare, Sept. 1769, D.G., Steward” 

Coin Collection Env. 29 


5) John Boydell (1719-1804) 

Ticket for his Shakespeare Lottery 

London, 1804-05 

No. 320 of approximately 22,000 lottery tickets sold for the inventory of 167 paintings during the dissolution of the gallery Y.d.295 


6) Bonnet from 1995 BBC production of Pride and Prejudice 

Worn by actress Susannah Harker as Jane Bennet 

London, 1995 

Property of Cosprop Ltd., London 


7) Promotional image for BBC’s Pride and Prejudice (1995) 

DVD Box 

Reproduction 

Loan courtesy of private collector 


8) Francis Wheatley (1747-1801) 

Boydell Shakespeare Gallery 

Watercolor on paper, 1790 

Reproduction 

Courtesy of the Victoria & Albert Museum 


9) Mr Garrick Reciting the Ode, in honor of Shakespeare 

England, after 1769

Line engraving 

ART FILE G241 no. 2