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Creator:
unknown artist
Formerly attributed to William Hamilton, 1751–1801
Title:

Cordelia Championed by the Earl of Kent, from Shakespeare's "King Lear," I, i

Former Title(s):

Cordelia Championed by the Earl of Kent from 'King Lear,' I, i [1985, Cormack, YCBA Concise Catalogue]

Date:
between 1770 and 1780
Medium:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
41 1/8 x 50 1/2 inches (104.5 x 128.3 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1975.5.15
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Link to Frame:
B1975.5.15FR
Subject Terms:
actors | architecture | armor | costume | curtain | dogs (animals) | earl | gesture | guards (security) | interior | king (person) | King Lear, play by William Shakespeare | literary theme | map | performance | rug | stage | sword | theater (discipline) | throne | women
Associated People:
Shakespeare, William (1564–1616), playwright and poet
Cordelia (character in King Lear)
Access:
Not on view
Note: To make an appointment to see this work, please contact the Paintings and Sculpture department at ycba.paintings@yale.edu. Please visit the Paintings and Sculpture collections page on our website for more details.
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:225
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As Shakespeare was dubbed England’s national poet in the eighteenth century, his works took on fresh importance as the country was swayed by cultural and political tensions. The family became a visual symbol of the state, with the relationship between a father and his children becoming a proxy for a more expansive relationship between the people and the king. The unattributed Cordelia Championed by the Earl of Kent therefore advances the values of the private, domestic, and filial with the marginalized Cordelia as the image of passive feminine piety. She and Kent balance the red-dominated center of the painting, and despite her sidelined position, she becomes an alternate focal point of dazzling purity contrasting with the male passions that define the rest of the painting.

Gallery label for Art in Focus: The British Castle - A Symbol in Stone (Yale Center for British Art, 2017-04-07 - 2017-08-06)

Art in Focus : The British Castle - A Symbol in Stone (Yale Center for British Art, 2017-04-07 - 2017-08-06) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Shakespeare and British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 1981-04-23 - 1981-07-05) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Geoffrey Ashton, Shakespeare and British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1981, pp. 1, 96, no. 3, PR2933 Y25 A74 c.1 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 36-37, N590.2 A83 (YCBA) [YCBA]

The British Castle : A Symbol in Stone, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2017, pp. 16-17, cat. 11, V2722 (YCBA) [YCBA]


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