Macbeth and the Witches (from William Shakespeare's 'Macbeth') (unfinished)
Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA (Plympton 1723 - London 1792)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1786
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
2720 x 3660 mm
Order this imageCollection
Petworth House and Park, West Sussex (Accredited Museum)
NT 486153
Caption
Reynolds has depicted three successive stages in Act IV, scene I of Macbeth. The three apparitions - the armed head, the bloody child and the child crowned, with a tree in its hand - which in the play appear independently, are all introduced into the painting. Macbeth is shown with his back to us, his head in profile, facing the witches. Reynolds worked intermittently on Macbeth until the Summer of 1789 when the onset of partial blindness forced him to stop painting. In September that year it was reported that “This grand picture is almost finished; the material parts, the countenances, figures are quite complete; a little work wanting in the draperies.” The newspaper, ‘The Morning Post’ (1st September 1789) commented on Reynolds’s loss of sight, remarking that ‘Macbeth will probably remain for ever in its present visionary state.’
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Macbeth and the Witches (from William Shakespeare's 'Macbeth') (unfinished) by Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA (Plympton 1723 - London 1792), 1786. Macbeth and the Witches, with Macbeth standing with turned back, left of centre, his head in profile right, facing the witches. At left can be seen a fiery pit, with dancing figures and shadows.
Provenance
Commissioned by Alderman Boydell for the Shakespeare Gallery, June 1786, who paid £500 on account. It was unfinished at the artist's death and according to W. Cotton, 'Reynolds' 1856, agreement was reached between the artist's executors and Boydell for a total sum of £1,000 for the work; in the Shakespeare Gallery sale, Christie's 20 May 1805, lot 56, bought by Lewis for £378; sold by Lewis, Christie's 4 July 1807, lot no.36, bought by Bott or Both for £430; acquired by the 3rd Earl of Egremont and at Petworth at the time of loan to British Institution; thence by descent, until the death in 1952 of the 3rd Lord Leconfield, who had given Petworth to the National Trust in 1947, and whose nephew and heir, John Wyndham, 6th Lord Leconfield and 1st Lord Egremont (1920-72) arranged for the acceptance of the major portion of the collections at Petworth in lieu of death duties (the first ever such arrangement) in 1956 by HM Treasury.
Credit line
Petworth, The Egremont Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA (Plympton 1723 - London 1792), artist
References
Remastered - Bosch to Bellotto: An Exhibition of Petworth's European Old Masters (exh cat) (Andrew Loukes) Petworth House, West Sussex, 9 January - 6 March 2016, cat. 50