.When a portrait could be easily reproduced in multiple copies through
the techniques of engraving, mezzotint, or other available media, the
status of the subject could be further enhanced. McArdell's mezzotint
of Garrick is (with the two possible exceptions just referred to) one
of the earliest examples of the process applied to a Hamlet portrait.
During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, such efforts were
often richly rewarded. "Successful" stage performers sometimes became
cult figures, the multiple reproductions of their portraits providing
popular icons sought after by idolizers who followed their favorite
actors' fortunes with all the passion that in subsequent centuries has
been accorded certain film and music stars (the examples of John
Philip Kemble, Edmund Kean, Henry Irving, Ellen Terry, Edwin Booth,
and Sarah Bernhardt immediately come to mind). Not surprisingly, just
as a reputable portrait painter could make a good living by being paid
by his subject (Garrick commissioned a number of works in which he was
depicted), the print seller or publisher who hired a designer and
engraver could generate income by reproducing and selling portraits.
Book publishers in addition saw the inclusion of portraits (like the
inclusion of illustrations generally) as attractive enhancements to
books that could increase sales.
Some New Subjects and Media for Hamlet Images: Portraits in the
Nineteenth Century
In the late eighteenth and then in the nineteenth centuries, both
subject and artist, in seeking to attain the abo
