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A scene from the Merry Wives of Windsor
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James Durno (c. 1745 - 1795)
A scene from the Merry Wives of Windsor
1788
Oil on canvas
Height: 158.5cm
Width: 218.2cm
Width: 218.2cm
Inscription: None
Museum number: P211
Curatorial note
The painting represents Falstaff in diguise led out by Mrs. Page from Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act IV, Scene 2.
Provenance
This work was painted in Rome. It is one of a pair commissioned by Alderman John Boydell for his celebrated Shakespeare Gallery and was purchased by John Soane at the sale of the contents of the Shakespeare Gallery at Christie's in 1805 (Lot.31 on Saturday 18 May).
Literature
Soane, Description, 1830, pp.21 and 40
Soane, Description, 1835, p. 56
Friedman, W., Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery, New York, 1976
Cannon-Brookes, P. (ed.), The Painted Word: British History Painting 1750-1830, exhibition catalogue, Heim, Jermyn Street, 1991, pp. 108-109
Thornton and Dorey, Miscellany, 1992, p.124
New Description, Sir John Soane's Museum, 2007, pp.73 and 98
Ashton. G., Shakespeare, His Life and works in paintings, prints and ephemera, London, 1990
Soane, Description, 1835, p. 56
Friedman, W., Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery, New York, 1976
Cannon-Brookes, P. (ed.), The Painted Word: British History Painting 1750-1830, exhibition catalogue, Heim, Jermyn Street, 1991, pp. 108-109
Thornton and Dorey, Miscellany, 1992, p.124
New Description, Sir John Soane's Museum, 2007, pp.73 and 98
Ashton. G., Shakespeare, His Life and works in paintings, prints and ephemera, London, 1990
If you have any further information about this object, please contact us: worksofart@soane.org.uk