Robert Smirke (Wighton, 1752 – London, 1845): Genre and historical painter and illustrator. He was apprenticed in London with an heraldic painter; then, he began to study in the schools of the Royal Academy, to whose exhibitions he contributed in 1786. Between 1775 and 1834, he exposed at the Society of British Artists and at Suffolk Street too. In 1791, Smirke was elected an associate of the Royal Academy and, in 1793, a full member. In 1814, he was nominated keeper to the Academy, but the king refused to sanction the appointment on account of the artist's revolutionary opinions. He was engaged upon the Shakespeare gallery, for which he painted Katharina and Petruchio, Prince Henry and Falstaff and other subjects. He also executed many clever and popular book-illustrations inspired in the Bible, Shakespeare’s works, Cervantes’ Don Quixote, England History, The Thousand and one nights, etc. His works, which are frequently humorous, are pleasing and graceful, accomplished in draftsmanship and handled with considerable spirit (Benezit IX, 656).
"Esta figura que veis ahí, sentanda meditativamente ante una mesa de pino, con la pluma de ave en el tintero, el brazo izquierdo sobre las albas cuartilllas, y el derecho sirviendo de soporte a la abstraída y alborotada cabeza, no es un poeta romántico encerrado en una buhardilla, abrigado en su carrick, con un jarro de agua fría por toda bebida y en trance de solicitar la inspiración de la musa. Ese es Don Quijote en su biblioteca, y está proyectando mentalmente, a solas, su primera salida. [...] Más que un retrato del loco sublime, lo que vemos es el retrato de toda una época sombriamente demencial" (GG 183). Givanel mistakes don Quixote at his library for Cervantes writing his preface. |
