ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how the Gallery’s growth indicates a market for William Shakespeare, how the Gallery responded to that market, and in turn how the Gallery perpetuated that market. These marketing issues can indicate to what British Romantic culture thought about Shakespeare at a significant juncture in his reception, when Shakespeare was still being canonized as the British National Poet. Exhibiting 90 paintings, the Shakspeare Gallery offered at least one illustration for each of Shakespeare’s plays, with the sole exception of Julius Caesar, still unrepresented after five years. The evidence from the Shakspeare Gallery catalogues then offers some correctives to current approaches to Boydell’s enterprise and suggests new avenues for research into Romantic appetites for Shakespeare. Had Boydell’s gallery closed with a total of 144 pictures, its growth over time would indicate how long it took to complete a sizeable project.
