The Boydell Shakespeare Gallery

About this episode

This episode explores the rise and fall of the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery and its impact on art and culture.

When you visit a new city, one of your first stops might be a museum. It turns out that public art galleries are largely an 18th-century invention. In London in 1789, publisher John Boydell helped shape that new cultural experience with an ambitious project in Pall Mall: a gallery devoted entirely to scenes from Shakespeare. Boydell commissioned leading British artists to paint pivotal moments from the plays, then sold engraved reproductions for museum-goers to take home with them. The gallery quickly became a sensation and was visited by everyone who was anyone, from Jane Austen to the Prince of Wales. It also played a powerful role in transforming William Shakespeare from a popular playwright into a national icon. The venture ultimately failed due to the economic turmoil of the Napoleonic Wars, and the many life-size paintings were cut into smaller canvases and all sold at auction. Yet its influence endured, shaping exhibition culture, influencing a British school of art, and inspiring the visual mythology of The Joining us to explore the rise and fall of the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery are Rosie Dias, Professor of Art History at the University of Warwick, and Michael Dobson…

People in this episode

Guests: Rosie Dias, Michael Dobson

Topics covered

• Boydell Shakespeare Gallery
• public art galleries
• Shakespeare
• 18th-century art
• cultural history

Keywords

• John Boydell
• art history
• exhibition culture
• British art

Mentioned in this episode

Places: London, Great Malvern, Studio City, California

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