Scene from Antony and Cleopatra, at the Princess's Theatre, from "Illustrated London News"
After Alfred Hunt British
Subject William Shakespeare British
Sitter Isabella Glyn British, Scottish
Not on view
Theatrical reviews formed a mainstay of much British nineteenth-century journalism. The rise of wood engraved illustrations in the 1840s to accompany these allowed for both visual and textual descriptions to be made for interested readers. This print accompanied one such review published in a popular weekly newspaper. Much praise was heaped upon the "splendour of the appointments and accessories" of the production staged at the Princess's Theatre on Oxford Street, London. Isabella Glyn, a well-known Shakespearean actor, played the leading female role of the Queen of Egypt and she appeared as Cleopatra more than once in her career.