The history of this very interesting and renowned portrait is as follows. It is presumed to be the work of Richard Burbage, the first actor of Richard III., who is known to have handled the pencil. It then became the property of Joseph Taylor, the poet’s Hamlet, who, dying about the year 1653, left it by will to Sir William Davenant, the poet, who was born 1605, and died 1668. He was a professed admirer of Shakspeare; and his elder brother (Parson Robert) had been heard to relate, as Aubrey informs us, that Shakspeare had often kissed Sir William when a boy. At the death of Sir William Davenant, in 1668, it was bought by Betterton, the great actor, belonging to the Duke’s Theatre, of which Davenant was the patentee; and when he died, Mr. Robert Keck, of the Inner Temple, gave Mrs. Barry, the actress, who had it from Betterton, forty guineas for it. From Mr. Keck it passed to Mr. Nicol, of Minchenden House, Southgate, whose only daughter and heiress, Mary, married James, Marquess of Carnarvon, afterwards Duke of Chandos, from whom it descended in right of his second wife, Anna Eliza, to the late Duke of Buckingham and Chandos. It is a small portrait on canvas, 22 inches long by 18 broad. The face is thoughtful, the eyes are expressive, and the hair is of a brown black, the dress is black with a white turnover collar, the strings of which are loose. In the left ear is a small gold ring. It fetched, at the Duke of Buckingham’s sale at Stowe, in September, 1848, the princely sum of 355 guineas. The Earl of Ellesmere was the purchaser, and it now forms part of the grand collection of pictures at Bridgwater House, in the Green Park.
THE FELTON PORTRAIT OF SHAKSPEARE.
The following is the advertisement of the sale of this celebrated portrait, which took place at Christie’s Rooms on the 30th April 1870:—
MESSRS. CHRISTIE, MANSON, & WOODS, respectfully give notice that they will SELL by AUCTION, at their great Rooms, King Street, St. James’s Square, on Saturday, April 30th, at 3 o’clock, the FELTON PORTRAIT of SHAKSPEARE. This celebrated picture forms part of an estate in course of administration under orders of the Court of Chancery. It is generally supposed to be the portrait from which Droeshout engraved his plate, the first portrait published of Shakspeare, and has the reputation of Ben Jonson’s testimony of its resemblance to the immortal bard,—‘This figure, that thou here seest put, it was for gentle Shakspeare cut; wherein the graver had a strife with nature, to out-doo the life: O, could he but have drawn his wit as well in brasse, as he hath hit his face; the print would then surpass all that was ever writ in brasse.’ The picture is painted on wood, life-size, little more than the countenance remaining. On the back is an inscription in old writing, ‘Gu. Shakspeare, 1597.—R. B.’; presumed to be Richard Burbage, a well-known player and artist, contemporary with Shakspeare, and to whom report has always given the honour of painting the only portrait for which Shakspeare sat.”
The picture had but few admirers, and realized only fifty pounds.
PARISIAN CARICATURISTS.
In March, 1851, a singular circumstance occurred in Paris, namely, the conviction and sentencing of Charles Vernier, the caricaturist on the Charivari, to a fine of 100 francs and two months’ imprisonment. His crime was designing a head of the Constitution. M. Léon Faucher and other politicians were shooting arrows at this wonderful mark. The President was handing them the arrows. Underneath was written, “Who upsets it completely shall be my minister.” M. Leopold Pannier, the editor, was condemned to pay 2000 francs fine, and suffer six months’ imprisonment. The passion of the French for political ferment must be extraordinary to require such severity exercised towards the press and the arts, added to an extensive system of espionage, which appears to pervade every society of every grade throughout France. Where “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity,” are upon every lip, we find French citizens amerced and imprisoned for an offence which in England, monarchical England, is allowed to pass unnoticed. Our caricaturists, had they been in France, would have been pillaged of every farthing, and rotted in a felon’s gaol, for producing merely a tithe of the bold, political hits at royalty, the ministry, and the political events of the French war, during the reigns of George III. and George IV. The most biting caricatures were thrown off by thousands within a stone’s throw of the palace of St. James’s, and wet impressions taken to the King, whose good nature was above making war upon Art, even if his knowledge of the English character, and the experience of many years—from the days of Sir Robert Walpole—had not shown him that disappointment, or even public spleen, is harmlessly dissipated by a laugh and a stinging article from some journal,—the true safety-valve for the expression of public hatred to political partisans or measures.—Almanac of the Fine Arts.