Identifier: historicalportra00whea (find matches)
Title: Historical portraits; some notes on the painted portraits of celebrated characters of England, Scotland and Ireland
Year: 1897 (1890s)
Authors: Wheatley, Henry B. (Henry Benjamin), 1838-1917
Subjects: Portrait painters
Publisher: London, G. Bell
Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Getty Research Institute

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rical portraits,those which show the actor as he is in private life,and those where he is seen in character. Examplesof both these classes are abundant, and many ofthem are excellent. There is another class consisting of pictures ofscenes from plays as acted on the stage. Itrequires a good painter to make these successful,for they are too apt to look unreal, and to appearas shadows of a shade; but there are severalexcellent examples of this class. Maclises picture of the play scene in Hamlet,now in the Tate Gallery, is good, but still it issomewhat stagey. Mr. E. A. Abbey, R.A., triedin the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1897 todepict the scene as it might have happened, buthe was not very successful, for we care nothing forthe archaic scene—our interest is in the scenethat Shakespeare drew, and that is of no date. The room to the left of the entrance to theDulwich Gallery is of great interest, because ofthe portraits of early actors there. These pictures RICHARD BUR BAG E, BY HIMSELF.
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THOMAS BETTERTON, BY SIR G. KNELLER. ACTORS AND ACTRESSES 237 are not works of art, and compare unfavourablywith the beautiful pictures in the adjoining rooms,but they are of the greatest value as giving usauthentic portraits of the early actors. Here areportraits of William Sly, who acted with Shake-speare, Nathaniel Field, Tom Bond, RichardPerkins ; and William Cartwright, who presentedthese pictures to Dulwich College. No such collection of theatrical portraits existsas that preserved at the Garrick Club. Thegallery was originally formed by Charles Mathewsthe elder, who publicly exhibited it in OxfordStreet in 1833, where was published a CatalogueRaisonne of Mr. Mathewss Gallery of TheatricalPortraits, now exhibited for the first time, andforming a nearly complete Dramatic Record fromthe year 1659 down to the present time. QueensBazaar, Oxford Street. Mathewss collection was presented to theGarrick Club in 1852 by Mr. John Dowland Dur-rant, and it has been largely added to by gifts

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