William Shakespeare - Guildhall Yard, Gresham Street, London, UK
N 51° 30.935 W 000° 05.507
30U E 701778 N 5711172
This is one of four busts of historical people situated at the front of the Guildhall Art Gallery. This bust, of William Shakespeare, is located in the second niche from the right when facing the gallery.
Waymark Code: WMEE88
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 05/15/2012
Views: 1
The bust, of William Shakespeare, is carved
from Portland stone and is about 150% life-size. Great care has been taken with
the carving and the resemblance between the bust and drawings of Shakespeare,
made at the time of his life, leaves no doubt as to who it is. The bust shows
Shakespeare with his familiar balding pate and looking slightly to his right.
The sculptor was Tim Crawley and he has this to say about the bust on his
website (visit
link):
"The new Guildhall Art Gallery houses the
substantial collection of paintings owned by the City of London. The Portland
stone building was designed with an open loggia opening onto Guildhall Yard with
four shallow niches on the rear wall. New portrait busts were commissioned
commemorating individuals particularly associated with the history of the City:
Cromwell, Wren, Shakespeare and Pepys. The project involved researching the
appearance of each figure as the basis for designing new busts, which were
produced at one and a half times life size, a scale demanded by the
architectural location."
The Spartacus website (visit
link) tells us:
"William Shakespeare was born in
Stratford-on-Avon in 1564. As a boy he attended the local grammar school.
Shakespeare's family were fairly poor, so he was forced to leave school at an
early age to find work. When he was eighteen William married Anne Hathaway. By
the time William was 21 he was the father of three children.
In 1588 Shakespeare disappeared to London. Rumours at the time suggested that he
had run away from Stratford after being accused of deer-poaching. If caught,
Shakespeare was in danger of being executed.
As a child, Shakespeare had seen plays performed in Stratford by strolling
players. This had given him the idea of becoming an actor, and soon after
arriving in London he found work at the Swan Theatre.
As well as acting, Shakespeare also began to write plays. His first play, Henry
VI, was performed in 1592. In the next eleven years twenty-three of
Shakespeare's plays were performed in London. These included Richard III,
Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, King Lear, Macbeth, and Julius
Caesar.
Shakespeare wrote comedies, tragedies and history plays. He usually directed his
own plays, and in some cases, even acted in them. His plays were popular with
the public. The large audiences that his plays attracted enabled his theatre
group to build a larger theatre called the Globe.
Shakespeare's plays were also popular with the royal family. Shakespeare's group
performed several of his plays in front of Elizabeth I . It is believed that
Elizabeth suggested the subjects of several of the plays that he wrote.
James I also liked Shakespeare's plays. He showed his approval by allowing
Shakespeare's theatre company to call themselves the King's Men.
As the writer of the plays performed at the Globe, Shakespeare received a share
of the theatre's profits. By 1605 he was rich enough to retire to Stratford
where he died in 1616."