Measuring nine by eleven feet, this painting was commissioned by Alderman John Boydell for his Shakespeare Gallery, and fills a major gap in the Folger’s art collection. Until now, the Folger only had small-format scenes from the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery, each measuring approximately two by three feet. Northcote’s Romeo and Juliet is one of the famous large-format scenes engraved as “elephant folio” plates. It brings the total number of Boydell paintings at the Folger to eleven, reuniting the Northcote with its brethren for the first time since the Gallery’s 160 paintings were sold by lottery in 1805.
