Left: Sketch for Romeo and Juliet, by Sir Frank Dicksee (1853–1928). Pencil and watercolour, heightened with gouache. 8 3/4 X 6 1/4 inches (22.5 x 16 cm). Private collection, image courtesy of the author. Right: Illustration to Romeo and Juliet. Colour lithograph for the frontispiece of The Kingsway Shakespeare. Image courtesy of the author.
Dicksee was obviously fascinated by Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and made several book illustrations depicting "the balcony scene" throughout his career. The watercolour shown on the left above served as a study for the frontispiece illustration to Romeo and Juliet in Vol. VII of Sir Sidney Lee's Imperial Edition of the Complete Works of Shakespeare, which was published by The Standard Literature Co. Ltd in the early 1900s, likely 1907. The same illustration was later used as the frontispiece to Romeo and Juliet for The Kingsway Shakespeare published by Harrap & Co in 1927, appearing on p. 898. The scene depicted comes from Act II, Scene V, l. 42, where Romeo says, "Farewell, farewell! One kiss, and I'll descend."
These were not the only instances, however, of Dicksee illustrating the play. In the 1880s, the British publisher Cassell & Co. hired Dicksee to illustrate several books, including The Royal Shakespeare, the writer's complete works. In Cassell's "Royal" edition of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, published in 1884, is a black-and-white illustration based on a drawing of 1876 now in the Dahesh Museum in New York (accession no. 1999.18). This drawing was transferred to a woodblock in monochrome and in reverse in preparation for the later printmaking, and portrays the balcony scene quite differently from his later more dramatic representations of the scene: Romeo is shown standing on the ground and looking up at Juliet who is peering down at him over her balcony. In 1884, Romeo and Juliet. With Twelve Illustrations by F. Dicksee A.R.A. was also published by Cassell & Company Limited, with a black and white photogravure of his 1884 oil painting of the balcony scene, which is now at Southampton City Art Gallery, being used as the frontispiece. In this painting Romeo is seen straddling the balcony about to descend while leaning over to embrace and kiss Juliet. This is the best known of Dicksee's versions of the scene. Juliet does not look at Romeo, however, with the intense expression found in the later watercolour sketch as she grips the head of her lover. In 1925 Dicksee painted a circular watercolour entitled The Last Parting which was exhibited at the Royal Academy that year and illustrated in Pall Mall Pictures.
Related Material
- Romeo and Juliet (Romeo and Juliet, frontispiece)
- The Death of Mercutio (Romeo and Juliet, Act III, Scene i)
Created 10 July 2026