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William Mulready (1786 – 1863),

Study of a Male Nude, c. 1852

#William Mulready #male nude #male beauty #art #academic study #academic male #male study #male youth #male #19th century

A Fireside Read

Artist: William Mulready (Irish, 1786-1863)

Date: 1825

Medium: Oil on wood

Collection: Private Collection

Description

This picture, painted in Mulready’s liquid palette of warm caramel tones, is an unusually intimate study of domestic quiet. The little painting on the mantelpiece looks also to be by Mulready. The sitter resembles a Mrs. Leckie, with whom Mulready had a relationship.

Ira Aldridge in the Role of Shakespeare's Othello

Artist: William Mulready (Irish, 1786–1863)

Date: ca. 1826

Medium: Oil on panel

Collection: Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland, United States

Ira Aldridge in the Role of Shakespeare's Othello

The subject of this work shows a marked resemblance to the famous African-American actor Ira Aldridge (1807-1867), praised as one of the greatest tragic actors of his day, he won renown in Europe for his Shakespearean roles, including Lear, Macbeth and, most famously, Othello. On October 10, 1825, Aldridge made his European debut, making him the first African American actor to establish himself professionally in a foreign country (at London's Royal Coburg Theatre). The following year he played Othello. By the time of his death in 1867 he had won awards and medals all over Europe, having played in Berlin, Brussels, Paris, Frankfurt, Cologne, Bonn, Budapest and the major cities of Russia. An innovation Aldridge introduced early in his career was a direct address to the audience on the closing night of his engagement at a given theatre. Especially in the years leading up to the emancipation of enslaved people in British colonies (by act of 1833) he would speak of the injustice of enslavement and the passionate desire for freedom of those held in bondage.