Richard II
1775
- Medium
- etching in brown ink
- Dimensions
- 57.3 × 40.8 cm
- Status
- In Museum Collection
- Collect24 Art ID
- C24-226440
John Hamilton Mortimer supported the prevailing academic doctrine which located history painting at the top of the hierarchy of subject matter. Unlike many of his contemporaries, however, he turned to the great subjects of English literature for themes. From 1775 to 1776, Mortimer produced etchings of twelve Shakespearean characters, including King Lear, Ophelia, and Caliban. In this dramatic composition, the skeletal figure of death looms over the tense King Richard II. This rare signed proof is a marvelous example of Mortimer's Romantic sensibility. By the time he was twenty-three years …
Provenance
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of various donors to the department of Prints and Drawings, 2002.58
Registry history
- 1775 — Recorded in the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art — prints
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