David Garrick as Richard III

Hogarth's David Garrick as Richard III of 1745 depicts Britain's greatest actor of the century in the most demanding role of his repertoire — the terrified awakening from his dream of murdered victims on the night before Bosworth Field. Garrick's revolutionary naturalistic acting style, which abandoned the formal declamation of his predecessors for spontaneous emotional expression, is captured in the painting's psychological intensity. The work was enormously successful as both painting and print, establishing the visual vocabulary for stage portraiture that would influence British theatrical painting for a century.

Hogarth captures Garrick's dramatic gesture with extraordinary energy and immediacy—the actor starts up from his bed, arm outstretched in terror. The theatrical lighting and the dark, atmospheric tent setting create a powerful image of dramatic performance.