This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 3/13/2021
[SHAKESPEARE]. FUSELI, Henry (1741–1825), after. Seven Stipple Engravings from The Dramatic Works of Shakespeare. London: John and Josiah Boydell, 1796–1803. Folio. Including: “Prospero, Mirando, Caliban and Ariel” (The Tempest, I, ii, 325); Vol. I, Plate IV. –– “Titania’s Awakening” (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, IV, i); Vol. I, Plate XXI. –– “The Witches Appear to Macbeth and Banquo” (Macbeth, I, iii); Vol. I, Plate XXXVII. –– “Prince Hal and Poins Surprise Falstaff with Doll Tearsheet” (King Henry the Fourth, Part 2, II, iv); Vol. II, Plate IV (laid down to board). –– “King Henry Condemning Cambridge, Scroop and Northumberland” (King Henry the Fifth, II, ii); Vol. II, Plate XII. –– “Lear Casting out his Daughter Cordelia” (King Lear, I, i); Vol. II, Plate XXXVIII, issued in Part No. III. –– “Hamlet, Horatio, Marcellus and the Ghost (Hamlet, I, iv); Vol. II, Plate XLIV. –– All after Fuseli’s paintings in the Shakespeare Gallery, all generally very good condition with dark impressions, several matted. From 1789 to 1804, Boydell commissioned Britain’s established and up-and-coming contemporary artists to paint scenes exclusively from Shakespeare’s plays, offering each generous compensation for their work. Once the exhibition was mounted, reproductive engravings of the paintings produced by an in-house team of 46 printmakers were available to purchase, either as a portfolio of prints or as illustrations to a luxurious edition of the plays. Weinglass 117; 119; 120; 121; 122; 123; 124. From the private library of a prominent Chicago collector, part II.