Artist
William Dawes
William Dawes is a Romanticism artist. 2 works are cataloged here, principally at Victoria and Albert Museum.
William Dawes made a single surviving satire painting called The Downfall of Shakespeare Represented on a Modern Stage in 1763–65. The crowded stage scene ridicules bad acting and weak writing, think modern tabloid theater jokes packed into the 1700s. A related print, H Beard Print Collection from 1763, shows the same sharp, mocking eye.
If you like theater and early cartoons, tap The Downfall of Shakespeare to see how one artist turned a bad play into high gossip.
Works by William Dawes
Collections represented
