William Shakespeare Burton

Inscriptionback to top

Inscr. (not in the artist’s hand) in pencil on piece of old mount (now in NPG RP 3042): ‘William Shakespeare / Burton. / By Himself. aged 73. / March, 1899’.

This portraitback to top

In the 1890s Burton was enjoying a revival of critical interest with two new paintings, Auto da Fé (c.1893, Walker AG, Liverpool) and The King of Sorrows (RA 1897; untraced), and the redisplay of his popular successes of the 1850s, The Wounded Cavalier and William Tell at loan exhibitions in Manchester and at Guildhall and Earl’s Court, London.[1] In 1856, John Ruskin had written of the Wounded Cavalier: ‘No.413. Subject and Painter not yet named in the catalogue. The former, not very intelligible; the latter is reported to be a younger member of the new school – Mr Burton. His work is masterly, at all events, and he seems capable of the greatest things.’[2]

Reproduced in the Magazine of Art in 1899, NPG 3042 may have been executed at the request of the editor, Marion Harry Spielmann. Under his tenure, the magazine formed a valuable collection of artists’ portraits and self-portraits, many of them contemporaries, captured in their prime. These were often first published as illustrations to reviews and critiques in the magazine.[3]

Carol Blackett-Ord

Footnotesback to top

1) Graves 1913–15, vol.1, p.130.
2) John Ruskin, ‘Academy Notes’ in Cook & Wedderburn 1903–12, vol.14, p.66.
3) The NPG’s purchase of 11 prints from Spielmann in 1936 was followed by the Spielmann Gift of 26 drawings in 1939.

Physical descriptionback to top

Head and shoulders to left, head slightly turned and facing front, wearing black cap.

Conservationback to top

Conserved, 1984.

Provenanceback to top

Marion Harry Spielmann; part of gift of 26 portrait drawings presented to NPG in 1939.

Reproductionsback to top

Magazine of Art, 1899, p.289.

'William Shakespeare Burton(1824-1916)', The British Art Journal, Vol. XV (2), p.77, fig.1.

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