Heroines of Shakespeare in Paintings

The weekly newspaper "The Graphic" commissioned several English artists to portray their idea of the Shakespeare's Heroines. The portraits were were exhibited in London in 1888.
These pictures in Shakespeare's Heroines are in the tradition of the "keepsake," portraits of beautiful women, usually suitable for framing, that were popular with the Victorian public.
"The Keepsake", a series of annual volumes published between the 1820s and 40s, contained light verse and sentimental stories illustrated with steel engravings, often of ladies in elegant costume, with fashionable ringlets and come-hither expressions.

Edmund Blair Leighton, Olivia

Edward J. Poynter. Cressida

Francis W. Topham, Isabella

Frank Dicksee, Beatrice

Frederic Leighton. Desdemona

Frederick Goodall. Miranda

George D. Leslie, Anne Page, Merry Wifes of Windsor

Henry Woods, Portia (The Merchant of Venice)

Herbert Gustave Schmalz, Imogen

J. W. Waterhouse, Cleopatra

Philip H. Calderon, Juliet

Laura T. Alma-Tadema. Queen Katherine of France

Marcus Stone. Ophelia

R. W. Macbeth, Rosalind

Samuel Fildes, Jessica

Valentine C. Prinsep. Mariana

The illustrations on this page are from Anna Jameson's Shakespeare's Heroines, published in 1901 by J. M. Dent (London) and E. P. Dutton (New York) as part of a series entitled "Miranda's Library." The illustrations are by R. Anning Bell. In this edition the heroines are divided into four categories: "Characters of Intellect," "Characters of Passion and Imagination," Characters of the Affections," and "Historical Characters." The book was originally published in 1832 (with a dedication to the actress Fanny Kemble), and this edition, reprinted almost seventy years later, proves its popularity.






Source: english.emory.edu

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