The Downfall of Shakespeare Represented on a Modern Stage
1764
paint
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
1764
paint
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
Dominant colour
The Downfall of Shakespeare Represented on a Modern Stage is a 1764 paint by William Dawes, a Rococo painting work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
This painting shows a crowded London stage in the 1760s. Actors in tights and wigs perform a Shakespeare play, but the crowd ignores them. Instead, they look up at a balcony box where a group laughs and points at the stage. The artist, William Dawes, painted this to criticize how opera was pushing out serious drama. It’s a quiet protest against change—no one expects a riot, just a slow shift in taste. Next time you’re in London, check out the Victoria and Albert Museum for more.
The painting satirizes the decline of Shakespearean drama at London’s Covent Garden theatre in the 18th century, where Italian opera and pantomime displaced serious plays. A central scene shows an opera singer in elaborate costume stabbing a fallen Shakespeare while trampling his works, flanked by statues mocking music and pantomime. Scales above the stage contrast the diminished weight of tragic drama against musical instruments and pantomime, while the audience reflects the shift toward operatic entertainment. A backdrop of a pyramid and windmill further underscores the theatre’s changing…
Read the full account in the museum source.
William Dawes made a single surviving satire painting called *The Downfall of Shakespeare Represented on a Modern Stage* in 1763–65.
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