Art History

One of the most unusual paintings in the Folger collection was originally exhibited at the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery. Explore how British artist George Romney portrayed the “natural genius” of Shakespeare at a time of rising bardolatry.

Victorians enjoyed viewing sets of engravings put out as “Galleries” of Shakespeare’s heroines as imagined by leading painters. Over the 19th century, they represented changing British ideas of feminine beauty and behavior.

In his groundbreaking documentary, We Were Here, Folger Fellow Fred Kuwornu shares the diverse African presence in Renaissance Europe—princes, ambassadors, saints, artists, scholars, and knights—all revealed through art from the period.