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David Garrick as King Lear
Richard Westall (English, 1765-1836)
c. 1815
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- 73 × 59.7 cm (28 3/4 × 23 1/2 in.); Framed: 93.4 × 79.4 × 8.9 cm (36 3/4 × 31 1/4 × 3 1/2 in.)
- Culture
- United Kingdom
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Credit line
- Gift of Richard L. Feigen
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
David Garrick, one of the most influential actors of 18th century Britain, appears here in the guise of the titular character from William Shakespeare’s King Lear, a role he played numerous times on the stage. The play follows Lear’s mental breakdown after he relinquishes his power and divides his kingdom between two of his daughters. In this portrait, made after Garrick’s passing and based on prints created from his death mask, the actor wears a crown of wheat and wildflowers in reference to a famous scene in the play during which the king rages at a storm, daring it to harm him.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
