A spokesperson describes the event as follows:
“...The exhibition presents fourteen paintings from the Folger’s collection that were originally displayed together in the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery in London. Seen on view together for the first time since the Boydell Gallery closed in 1805, the paintings offer depictions of pivotal scenes from Shakespeare’s plays while also speaking to a larger narrative of how the playwright was refashioned into a cultural icon during the 18th century...
...Imagining Shakespeare reveals an important confluence of artistic ambition, commercial enterprise, and nationalism when publisher John Boydell (1720–1804) launched an initiative to commission dramatic scenes from Shakespeare’s plays by leading British artists of the Regency period. Through these artistic commissions, and the engravings and multi-volume edition of Shakespeare’s illustrated plays readily available for sale at the gallery, Boydell sought not only to elevate British artists but also to enshrine Shakespeare as both the enduring national icon and export of the British Empire..."
