David Garrick as Richard III [SEP] creator
David Garrick as Richard III
David Garrick as Richard III is a painting dating from 1745 by the English artist William Hogarth.
The painting shows the actor and stage manager David Garrick in the role of Richard III in Shakespeare's play "Richard III". It depicts a dramatic moment in the play on the eve of the Battle of Bosworth (1485). The king, who had been asleep in his tent on the battlefield, has just woken from a dream in which he has seen the ghosts of
, the big attraction being the competition and rivalry between the male leads at Covent Garden and Drury Lane, Spranger Barry and David Garrick. In the 1740s, Charles Macklin, in roles such as Malvolio and Shylock, and David Garrick, who won fame as Richard III in 1741, helped make Shakespeare truly popular. Garrick went on to produce 26 of the plays at Drury Lane Theatre between 1747 and 1776, and he held a great Shakespeare Jubilee at Stratford in 1769. He freely adapted Shakespeare's work, however, saying