William Shakespeare
Art Fund Popular Portraits Collection. Photo: © National Portrait Gallery, London
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William Shakespeare
by Unknown artist
Staffordshire pottery bust, circa 1860s
9 1/8 in. x 6 1/4 in. (231 mm x 160 mm) overall
Purchased with help from the Art Fund, 2019
Reference Collection
NPG D48655
On display in Room 13 on Floor 3 at the National Portrait Gallery
Sitterback to top
- William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Dramatist and poet. Sitter associated with 107 portraits.
This portraitback to top
The 1840s saw numerous revivals of Shakespeare's plays and in 1864, the 300th anniversary of his birth was met with countrywide celebrations and an increase in the production of Shakespeare-themed souvenirs and images. Ceramic busts were displayed in homes on mantelpieces, bookshelves and desks. This version is based on engravings of the 'Chandos' portrait (NPG 1). Explore this portrait from all angles.
Events of 1860back to top
Current affairs
An early feminist movement, The Society for Promoting the Employment of Women is founded by Adelaide Anne Proctor, Emily Faithfull, Helen Blackburn, Bessie Parks, Emily Davies, Barbara Bodichon, and Jessie Boucherett.The Florence Nightingale Training School for Nurses opens at St Thomas's Hospital, in London, funded from the testimonial fund collected for Nightingale following her war services, and helping to establish nursing as a profession.
Art and science
William Morris and new wife Jane Burden move into the Red House, near Bexleyheath, Kent. The house, designed by Philip Webb, represents Morris's principle in interior design, that no object should be in a house that is not beautiful.Ford Madox Brown paints The Last of England, showing a boat of emigrants leaving England under desperate circumstances, inspired by the emigration of the Pre-Raphaelite Thomas Woolner to Australia in 1852.
International
Italian unification continues as the Treaty of Turin brings much of Northern Italy under nationalist leader Cavour's control, who cedes Savoy and Nice to France. Garibaldi siezes the opportunity to invade Marsala in Sicily with his army of 1,000 redshirts, proclaiming himself dictator in the name of Victor Emmanuel II.Republican Abraham Lincoln becomes President of the US, with only 39% of the popular vote.
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