John Downman, Master Page, Anne Page, and Slender, About 1800. Oil paint on canvas;  32 1/2 × 39 3/4 in. (82.6 × 101 cm). Gift of the Berger Collection Educational Trust, 2019.3

image height: 32 1/2 in, 82.55 cm; image width: 39 3/4 in, 100.965 cm; frame height: 42 1/4 in, 107.315 cm; frame width: 48 7/8 in, 124.1425 cm; frame depth: 3 3/4 in, 9.525 cm

European and American Art Before 1900

European Painting and Sculpture before 1900

William Shakespeare had been dead nearly 200 years when publisher John Boydell undertook a campaign to revive interest in the bard. He commissioned the greatest artists of the day to paint scenes from his plays, then sold prints of the pictures in his London gallery. One result of this venture was a vogue for amateur productions of Shakespeare’s plays, as here, in this scene from The Merry Wives of Windsor. 

The Dawkins family; by descent from the sitters; Richard L. Feigen & Co., New York; from whom acquired by William M. B. Berger and Bernadette Johnson Berger, Denver, 1997; Berger Collection Educational Trust; gifted to the Denver Art Museum, 2019. Provenance research is on-going at the Denver Art Museum and we will post information as it becomes available. Please e-mail provenance@denverartmuseum.org, if you have questions, or if you have additional information to share with us.