Hamlet: The Final Act by Richard Westall

"Hamlet: The Final Act" oil on canvas by Richard Westall c1790.

Richard Westall RA was born in 1765 or 1766 in Hertford and died in London in 1836. He was a painter, watercolourist, illustrator and engraver. He was initially apprenticed to a heraldic engraver; drawing in his free time, he was sufficiently proficient that he exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1784. He enrolled at the RA Schools and went on to be elected as an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1792 and a full Member in 1794. Westall taught drawing and composition to Queen Victoria as a girl. From the very start of his career Westall worked for Boydell on the Shakespear Gallery.

His work is represented in the collections of the Art Galleries in Dublin, Glasgow, Manchester and Nottingham as well as the Royal Academy of the Arts, the National Portrait Gallery, the Tate, Victoria & Albert and the Wallace Collection in London.

Biblio: Benezit: Dictionart of Artists; Graves: Dictionary of Artists 1760-1893.

Dimensions: 710 x 910