Portia thumbnail 1
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Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Paintings, Room 82, The Edwin and Susan Davies Galleries

Portia

Oil Painting
ca. 1848 (painted)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

The subject was once thought to be the character of this name from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. However, the classical dress and hairstyle suggest that it depicts another Portia, the wife of Brutus in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitlePortia (popular title)
Materials and techniques
oil on panel
Brief description
Oil painting, 'Portia', Charles Robert Leslie, ca. 1848
Physical description
Oil painting
Dimensions
  • Estimate height: 25.4cm
  • Estimate width: 20.3cm
Dimensions taken from Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860, Ronald Parkinson, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO, 1990
Style
Credit line
Given by John Sheepshanks, 1857
Object history
Given by John Sheepshanks, 1857
Subject depicted
Literary references
  • 'Julius Caesar' by William Shakespeare
  • 'The Merchant of Venice' by William Shakespeare
Summary
The subject was once thought to be the character of this name from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. However, the classical dress and hairstyle suggest that it depicts another Portia, the wife of Brutus in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.
Bibliographic reference
Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860, Ronald Parkinson, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO, 1990, pp. 172-73
Collection
Accession number
FA.127[O]

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Record createdMay 21, 2003
Record URL
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