1
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
Dominant colour
H Beard Print Collection is a 1 by John Greenhill, a Romanticism work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
This print shows Henry Harris playing Cardinal Wolsey in a Shakespeare play. Greenhill made the first oil portrait of Harris in this role. The engraving copies that oil, printed for a 1820 Shakespeare book. Downes, a theater man in 1708, wrote that Harris’s Wolsey looked and moved just right for the part. Want to see more? Check the Victoria and Albert Museum.
This mezzotint, produced by Henry Dawe in 1820 after John Greenhill’s 1664 portrait, depicts Henry Harris in the role of Cardinal Wolsey from Shakespeare and Fletcher’s *Henry VIII*. The half-length image shows Harris facing right while holding a letter, though the print’s caption incorrectly names Joseph Harris as the sitter. The engraving is derived from an oil painting at the Garrick Club, itself a copy of Greenhill’s original portrait.
Read the full account in the museum source.
John Greenhill was an English portrait painter, a pupil of Peter Lely, who approached his teacher in artistic excellence, but whose life was cut short by a dissolute lifestyle.
See the richer artist pageYour cart is empty
Explore artworks →
