As we have seen over the course of the exhibition, Shakespearean texts were continually interpreted and re-written for different audiences, in different media, often with radically different conclusions drawn by author or artist. The Yale University Art Gallery has highlighted one example of this process in a display drawn from their permanent collections, on view through June 10, of the American artist Edwin Austin Abbey’s drafts and revisions towards his final painting of a scene from Richard III.
Edwin Austin Abbey’s “Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and the Lady Anne,” 1896. From the Edwin Austin Abbey Memorial Collection, Yale University Art Gallery. Call number: 1937.2224
Below, a scene and study towards the portrait.
Duke of Gloucester and Lady Anne, scene from Richard III. From the Edwin Austin Abbey Memorial Collection, Yale University Art Gallery. Call number: 1937.2218