Shakespeare wrote 38 plays but inspired many more artists. David Whetstone views work by just a few of them.
ASKED if they could come up with an exhibition to mark the Theatre Royal’s 175th birthday celebrations, staff at Newcastle’s Laing Art Gallery didn’t have to think too long or hard.
It seems the collections of Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums are rich in artefacts inspired by Shakespeare and his plays.
The result is Shakespeare in Art, a beautifully put together little exhibition which, according to curator Catriona Pearson, shows just some of the artworks that were available to her.
This is Catriona’s first exhibition since she joined the curatorial team after graduating from Newcastle University with an MA in museum studies.
“As far as I know, there hasn’t been a Shakespeare exhibition here before so it’s nice to see all these pieces together,” she said.
“All the prints have been conserved because they weren’t in very good condition. If they have been on display before, it was a long time ago. No one can remember them being on display. Some of the paintings, on the other hand, will be very well-known to people.”
Include among these Henry Wood’s Portia, from The Merchant of Venice, richly attired in the 1887 portrait in its heavy gilt frame.
Catriona said: “I think the exhibition shows that everyone can find something to enjoy in a Shakespeare play because they have such a variety of characters and stories.”
The same could be said of this exhibition. Putting it together, Catriona admitted, had been “very entertaining”. She had been careful to go for a mix of famous characters and those who are less well-known. So while you will see Hamlet, Juliet and Falstaff represented, there is also room for Touchstone and Audrey, the clown and the shepherdess whose comical parody of romance helps to light up As You Like It.
Her favourite exhibit, Catriona decided, was a portrait of Juliet and the Friar in one of the most sombre scenes of Romeo and Juliet.
Juliet, looking very much like the serious young teenager intended by Shakespeare, is receiving from the bearded friar the phial of liquid that will make her appear deceased.
