Character Studies: Portraying Shakespeare’s Richard III in Words and Image

Character Studies: Portraying Shakespeare’s Richard III in Words and Image is a gallery talk focusing on “Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and the Lady Anne” (1896), painted by Edwin Austin Abbey. Beginning with a discussion of Abbey’s work by Helen Cooper, curator of American paintings and sculpture at the YUAG, this event will examine interpretations of the wooing of Lady Anne from Shakespeare’s play Richard III through painting and performance. We will examine Abbey’s preparatory studies for the scene as well as the final painting to show how the artist developed its composition. Murray Biggs, Associate Professor of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies and English in Yale College, will discuss different theatrical interpretations of the scene and its significance within Richard III. Finally, students in the college will act out the scene of Richard wooing Lady Anne in front of the painting itself. By approaching Abbey’s depiction of the scene from curatorial, literary and theatrical perspectives, we hope to illuminate both the painting and the play.Part of Shakespeare at Yale, a semester of special events celebrating the Bard.