The Grieves Shakespearian Scene Designs

Summary

During the quatercentenary celebrations at Stratford an exhibition was mounted at Hall’s Croft by Mr John Carroll of designs by the Grieves purporting to be for performances of Shakespeare’s plays. This exhibition first drew public attention to a collection of over six hundred Grieve stage designs in the University of London Library, from which a large proportion of the exhibits were drawn. A closer examination of this collection, however, reveals that only eight are actually assigned to Shakespeare plays in contemporary hands, though some others may well have been for performances for which the Grieves painted scenery. Unfortunately there is no evidence to substantiate these. Two hands are involved in the captions, excluding modern additions: one is small and generally in ink on the mounts; the other is large and either in ink or pencil, generally on the drawings themselves but occasionally also on the mounts. Even with the eight captioned designs a caveat must be entered: these are sketches and may have been considerably modified on the stage. All’s Well, however, is cut out as a model and ‘Shylock’s House’ is squared for enlargement.