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Replies to Minor Queries.
_Shakspeare Portrait_ (Vol. viii., p. 438.).--J. S. Smith, in his
_Nollekins and his Times_ (vol. i. p. 26.), has a passage referring to the
portrait mentioned by your correspondent:
"Clarkson, the portrait painter, was originally a coach-panel and sign
painter; and he executed that most elaborate one of Shakspeare, which
formerly hung across the street at the north-east corner of Little
Russell Street, in Drury Lane. The late Mr. Thomas Grignon informed me,
that he had often heard his father say, that this sign cost _five
hundred pounds!_ In my boyish days it was for many years exposed for
sale for a very trifling sum, at a broker's shop in Lower Brook Street,
Grosvenor Square. The late Mr. Crace, of Great Queen Street, assured me
that it was in his early days a thing that country people would stand
and gaze at, and that that corner of the street was hardly passable."
Edwards, in his _Anecdotes of Painters_ (p. 117.), assigns the portrait to
a different painter, Samuel Wale, R.A. His account, however, being more
minute than Smith's, is worth transcribing:
"Mr. Wale painted some signs; the principal one was a whole-length of
Shakspeare, about five feet high, which was executed for, and displayed
before the door of a public-house, the north-west corner of Little
Russell Street, in Drury Lane. It was enclosed in a most sumptuous
carved gilt frame, and suspended by rich iron work; but this splendid
object of attraction did not hang long before it was taken down, in
consequence of the act of parliament which passed for paving, and also
for removing the signs and other obstructions in the streets of London.
Such was the total change of fashion, and the consequent disuse of
signs, that the above representation of our great dramatic poet was
sold for a trifle to Mason the broker, in Lower Grosvenor Street; where
it stood at his door for several years, until it was totally destroyed
by the weather and other accidents."