‘Look here upon this picture’: Shakespeare in art at Te Papa

Tuhinga 28: 31-48

ABSTRACT: This article examines the art holdings at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Te Papa) that relate to William Shakespeare and his writings, beginning with an engraving by Jan Harmensz. Muller of Cleopatra (c. 1592), which is treated as broadly ‘Shakespearean’ in its iconography. Later works include paintings by the neoclassicist George Dawe and prolific literary illustrator John Masey Wright, early modernist prints by Eric Ravilious and George Buday, as well as more recent counterparts by Tony Fomison and Sidney Nolan. Most detailed analysis is given to Raymond Boyce’s full-sized cartoons (1989) for the embroidered wall-hangings in Shakespeare’s Globe, London. It is argued that they are Te Papa’s most significant Shakespearean artworks and have a uniquely New Zealand component.

KEYWORDS: William Shakespeare, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Jan Harmensz. Muller, George Dawe, John Masey Wright, Eric Ravilious, George Buday, Tony Fomison, Sidney Nolan, Raymond Boyce, Wellington Shakespeare Society, Shakespeare’s Globe, embroidery