Lear Casting out his Daughter Cordelia

Description

King Lear tells the tragic tale of a king driven to madness. Flattered and manipulated by his disingenuous older daughters into giving them his lands, Lear banishes his youngest daughter, the devoted Cordelia, in the scene depicted here. This print is based upon Henry Fuseli’s painting of the same subject, created for the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery in London, which the publisher had reproduced for the wider commercial audience of Shakespeare enthusiasts throughout Britain.

Lear Casting out his Daughter Cordelia

Richard Earlom

1792

Accession Number

122067

Medium

Stipple etching and engraving on ivory laid paper

Dimensions

Plate: 50.1 × 63.4 cm (19 3/4 × 25 in.); Sheet: 55 × 68 cm (21 11/16 × 26 13/16 in.)

Classification

etching

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

William D. Shorey Memorial