Viola Surviving the Shipwreck off the Coast of Illyria, from “Twelfth Night”
George Romney (English, 1734-1802)
c. 1776
- Medium
- Black chalk and charcoal on ivory laid paper, edge mounted on ivory laid paper
- Classification
- Drawing and Watercolor
- Dimensions
- Primary support: 29.7 × 48.9 cm (11 3/4 × 19 5/16 in.); Secondary support: 36 × 55.4 cm (14 3/16 × 21 13/16 in.)
- Culture
- England
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Prints and Drawings
- Credit line
- Gift of Dorothy Braude Edinburg to the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
George Romney’s reputation as a portraitist rivaled that of Sir Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough, the leading figures of 18th-century British painting. Romney’s true ambition to be a history painter, however, was not fully realized until the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery was opened in 1786. This drawing is one of hundreds by Romney, most of which are in pen and wash, illustrating Shakespeare, Milton, and Greco-Roman mythology. The artist’s sweeping gestures with pen and wash emphasize the struggle and loss brought on by the shipwreck in the opening act of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
