William Shakespeare ('Shakespeare's Birthplace Stratford Upon Avon')
Art Fund Popular Portraits Collection. Photo: © National Portrait Gallery, London
William Shakespeare ('Shakespeare's Birthplace Stratford Upon Avon')
by Unknown artist, for British Railways
poster, 1948
40 in. x 25 1/8 in. (1015 mm x 637 mm) overall
Purchased with help from the Art Fund, 2018
Reference Collection
NPG D48065
Sitterback to top
- William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Dramatist and poet. Sitter associated with 107 portraits.
Artistsback to top
- British Railways. Artist or producer associated with 1 portrait.
- Unknown artist, Artist. Artist or producer associated with 6578 portraits.
This portraitback to top
This poster was produced in 1948, shortly after the end of the Second World War. It was designed to be displayed in railway stations to encourage visits to Shakespeare’s birthplace. At the time, Britain was contending with post-war austerity and attempts to rebuild towns and cities damaged by enemy action, and Shakespeare had become a powerful symbol of national strength and renewal. The poster depicts the Shakespeare Memorial by Lord Ronald Gower, which was erected at Stratford-upon-Avon in 1888. In the background is the sixteenth-century timbered house where Shakespeare was born, its architectural style evocative of an idyllic, rural English past.
Subjects & Themesback to top
Events of 1948back to top
Current affairs
Prince Charles is born in Buckingham Palace; he is the first son of Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of EdinburghThe Secretary of State for Health, Aneurin Bevan, introduces the National Health Service. Health services in Britain were now funded from central taxation and free at the point of use for every resident of the country.
Art and science
The First Morris Minor car designed by Alec Issigonis and his team (also responsible for the Mini) takes to the road, becoming a popular and classic English design.F.R. Leavis publishes his influential study of the English novel, The Great Tradition. The book set out Leavis's ideas on the proper relationship between literary form and moral concern.
International
The policy of Apartheid is adopted in South Africa. Apartheid was a set of laws allowing racial segregation and discrimination against the black majority by the white ruling class.As part of the dispute between Western and Soviet controlled Berlin, the Soviet Union blockades West Berlin, cutting off supplies. Anxious to avoid a conflict, America, Britain and France responded by flying in food and other provisions.
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