David Garrick and George Anne Bellamy as Romeo and Juliet at Juliet's Tomb (from William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Act V scene iii)
Benjamin Wilson (Leeds 1721 - London 1788)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1753 - 1757
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
711 x 965 mm (28 x 38 in)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Stourhead, Wiltshire
NT 732148
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, David Garrick and George Anne Bellamy as Romeo and Juliet at Juliet's Tomb (from William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Act V scene iii) by Benjamin Wilson (Leeds 1721 - London 1788), 1757. The picture illustrates the moment in Garrick's adaption of Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet', V. iii. when Juliet awakes. Through an arched building in a well-lit chamber Juliet, swathed in white garments, is seen sitting up from the stone floor as Romeo approaches from the outside in the centre foreground. To the right is a moonlit sky. A superior version is at the Yale Center for British Art.
Provenance
Acquired by Henry Hoare II (1705-85) in 1757; given to the National Trust along with the house, its grounds, and the rest of contents by Sir Henry Hugh Arthur Hoare, 6th Bt (1865 – 1947) in 1946.
Credit line
Stourhead, The Hoare Collection (The National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
Verso: Inscribed on the old stretcher: Garrick in Romeo 1757. 8 November 1757. Wilson. Mr.Lord Dungaran's friend, painter. For Romeo and Juliet ,105. [This stretcher evidently junked when picture restored (in 1960s?] is now just in large black capitals: GARRICK IN ROMEO 1757.
Makers and roles
Benjamin Wilson (Leeds 1721 - London 1788), artist
References
David MacIntosh "David Garrick and Benjamin Wilson", Apollo, May 1985 , pp.314ff.