One of a collection of four similar images; the others in this series are: Miss Hargraves as Amy; Madame Vestris as Don Giovani; Miss Bartolozzi as the page in The marriage of Figaro. Formerly part of an album (now lost), each on the same size sheet but different colors and attributed to different artists. Annotations in red ink are by the same hand. Presumably these collages, constructed from the same fabrics, were made by friends and exchanged as gifts. In this image, a full-length image of Edmund Kean as Othello constructed from parts of a print or prints while his costume and hat and their trimming are cut from satin cloth with additional decorated paper trimming and small metal buttons. This image is the only one of the four mounted on a secondary sheet, this one ruled as if from a ledger
Description:
Title written at bottom of sheet., Statement of responsibility written at top of sheet; "the author" is unidentified., and Date of production from recipient's note on the verso of one of the collages and other internal evidence.
Subject (Name):
Kean, Edmund, 1787-1833, and Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616.
Stump, S. J., approximately 1783-1863, printmaker, artist
Published / Created:
[2 December 1819]
Call Number:
Folio 53 Sh52 M78
Image Count:
1
Resource Type:
still image
Abstract:
Portrait of the actor Edmund Kean, in character in Payne's 'Brutus'; half length, turned slightly left but looking to the right; wearing a tunic with a broach at the left shoulder; in an oval
Description:
Title etched below image., "Proof"--Lower right corner of plate., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., Window mounted to 51 x 36 cm., and Mounted opposite page 688 (leaf numbered '134' in pencil) in volume 4 of an extra-illustrated copy of: Moore, T. Memoirs of the life of the Right Honourable Richard Brinsley Sheridan.
Publisher:
S.J. Stump
Subject (Name):
Kean, Edmund, 1787-1833, and Payne, John Howard, 1791-1852.
"Kean, in the costume of Sir Giles Overreach, stands on the stage, indicated by a boarded floor surrounded by flame and smoke from the jaws of a semicircle of ferocious monsters, serpentine, scaly, and fanged, and with glaring eyeballs. The largest and most menacing is the Old Times, emitting Gall, Spite Venon [sic] Hypocricy. Towards this Kean directs his levelled rapier, saying, By the powers of Shakspeare, I defy ye all. He holds above his head a large open book: Shakspeare, which is irradiated. Almost as large as the 'Times' is the pendant to it: New Times, vomiting Hypocricy. The other monsters are not specified, they spit flames inscribed respectively: Spleen; Cant; Malignity; Slander; Spite; Envy; Malice; Nonsence; Oblique."--British Museum catalogue and A comment on the backlash in the press regarding the Cox vs. Kean trial, in which Kean was accused of adultery with Robert Albion Cox's wife, Charlotte Cox. Kean gave a speech at Drury Lane, Jan. 28 1825, in which he offered himself up to the audience: "If it [the backlash] is done by a hostile Press, I shall endeavour to withstand it -- if it is your verdict, I shall bow to your decision, remember with gratitude your former favours, and leave you" (quotation from the British Museum catalogue).
Alternative Title:
Shakspeare in danger and Shakespeare in danger
Description:
Title etched below image., George Cruikshank might have collaborated with Robert Cruikshank in the production of this print; see British Museum catalogue., Quoted text following title: "Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow - thou shalt not escape calumny" - Hamlet., and Matted to 37 x 49 cm.
Publisher:
Pubd. Feby. 1825 by J. Fairburn, Broadway, Ludgate Hill
Subject (Name):
Kean, Edmund, 1787-1833,, Kean, Edmund, 1787-1833, and Kean, Edmund, 1787-1833.
Subject (Topic):
Performances, Actors, British, Stages (Platforms), and Monsters
Kean as Richard III, directed to the left, stands on a large volume with the word 'Shakespear' written on the top edge. Resting on his head and humped shoulders is a model of Drury Lane Theatre, a massive block, inscribed 'Whitbreads Intire.' On the roof is poised an ugly figure of Fame, blowing through a trumpet 'Puff Puff Puff', and holding behind her a second trumpet, from which issue the words 'Puff Puff P'. At the entrance to the theatre straddles a tiny Whitbread, his legs and arms projecting from a cask which forms his body; he says: "Now by St Paul the work goes bravely on" (altering Richard's words from 'this news is bad indeed'). Kean stoops, leaning on a cross-hilted sword, inscribed 'A Keen supporter'; he has misshapen bandy legs. He says: "Well, as you guess." He wears an ermine-trimmed cap encircled by a crown, slashed doublet and trunk hose, a sleeveless coat bordered with ermine and embroidered with a (Yorkist) rose, with flapped and spurred boots. (The figure, with the position of the arms altered, is a travesty of J.J. Hall's portrait of Kean interrogating Stanley on the approach of Richmond. The costume is correct.) The stage is indicated by curtains flanking the design. In the background are clouds of smoke.--Adapted from British Museum
Description:
Title from text etched below image., Complete imprint statement and dimensions supplied from British Museum impression., and Sheet trimmed within plate mark with loss of characters in the publisher's name.
Publisher:
Pubd. May 7th, 1814 by H. Humphrey, St. James's Street
Subject (Geographic):
England and London.
Subject (Name):
Kean, Edmund, 1787-1833, Kean, Edmund, 1787-1833,, Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616,, and Theatre Royal, Drury Lane (London, England)
