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Falstaff at Herne's Oak (Shakespeare, Merry Wives of Windsor, Act 5, Scene 5)

May 30, 1793
Not on view
Bunbury's "Shakespeare" consisted of twenty-prints published between 1792 and 1797, issued periodically in sets of four. The publisher Thomas Macklin was inspired by the success of Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery to open a rival Poets Gallery in 1787. He then commissioned a set of large watercolors from Bunbury of comic Shakesperean subjects with related prints issued by subscription. The artist was the younger son in an old gentry family who had amused fellow students with comic drawings at Westminster School in London, then at Cambridge University. He became a friend of Thomas Rowlandson, who etched many Bunbury designs. Most of Bunbury's income came, however, from army positions and the patronage of the Duke of York, whom he served as equerry. The Shakespeare series of watercolors rank among the artist's most ambitious and soon belonged to the Duchess of York. Michele Bennediti, a follower of Francesco Bartolozzi, produced this stipple engraving of a famous scene near the end of "The Merry Wives of Windsor." The housewives Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Page have arranged to meet Falstaff in Windsor Forest at night. He hopes to seduce them, and is unaware of their elaborate scheme to fend off his repeated and unwelcome attentions.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Falstaff at Herne's Oak (Shakespeare, Merry Wives of Windsor, Act 5, Scene 5)
  • Series/Portfolio: Macklin's Shakespeare
  • Engraver: Michele Beneditti (British, 1745–1810 Vienna)
  • Artist: After Henry William Bunbury (British, Mildenhall, Suffolk 1750–1811 Keswick, Cumberland)
  • Publisher: Thomas Macklin (British, 1752/53–1800 London)
  • Subject: William Shakespeare (British, Stratford-upon-Avon 1564–1616 Stratford-upon-Avon)
  • Dedicatee: Princess Frederica Charlotte of Prussia (German, Charlottenburg 1767–1820 Oatlands Park, Surrey)
  • Date: May 30, 1793
  • Medium: Stipple engraving and etching
  • Dimensions: Plate: 16 5/16 × 19 1/8 in. (41.4 × 48.5 cm)
    Sheet: 17 1/8 × 21 7/16 in. (43.5 × 54.5 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 2018
  • Object Number: 2018.131
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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