Shakespearean paint - character portraits of Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree by Charles Buchel

As Macbeth, 1914.

As Othello, 1914.

As Mark Antony in Julius Caesar, 1914.

As Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, 1914.

As Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, 1905.

As Hamlet, 1899.

As Cardinal Wolsey in Henry VIII, 1911-12.

As King John, 1900.

As Caliban in The Tempest, 1904.

The same as above.

Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree (17 December 1852, London - 2 July 1917, London), English actor and theater manager. The son of a prosperous merchant, he began performing in the 1870s and by 1887, at only thirty-four, he had taken on the management of the Haymarket Theatre, winning praise for his adventurous programming and lavish productions, while starring in many of its productions. After his success with the Haymarket, he helped fund the rebuilding of His Majesty's Theatre in lavish Louis XV style. It opened in 1897 during Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee year, and Tree would own, manage, and live in the theater until his death two decades later. As he had at the Haymarket, he scheduled a mix of Shakespeare and classic plays with new works and adaptations of popular novels, giving them sumptuous productions in the large house, and often playing leading roles. Tree was regarded as a versatile and skilled actor, particularly in character roles though, by his later years, his technique was seen as mannered and old-fashioned. His productions were exceptionally profitable; they were famous, most of all, for their elaborate and often spectacular scenery and effects. Unlike some other famous actor-managers, Tree engaged the best actors available to join his company and hired the best designers and composers for the plays with incidental music. He founded the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1904 and was knighted, for his contributions to the theater, in 1909. He wrote several books on the theater, and appeared in three early films. He spent most of 1915 and 1916 in the United States. He returned to England the following year, but died suddenly after surgery for a broken leg. He was sixty-four.

His family included his siblings, explorer Julius Beerbohm, author Constance Beerbohm and half-brother caricaturist Max Beerbohm. He married actress Helen Maud Holt in 1882; she often played opposite him and assisted him with management of the theaters, while her social adeptness assisted the couple's entry into élite artistic and intellectual circles. Their daughters were actresses Viola and Felicity Tree, and poet Iris Tree; their father also fathered several illegitimate children, including film director Carol Reed and Peter Reed, father of the British actor Oliver Reed. Tree was also the grandfather of Hollywood screenwriter and producer Ivan Moffat.

*

And in a non-Shakespearean role, as Gringoire in The Ballad Monger, 1912.

Charles Buchel (Karl August Büchel) (1872, Mainz - 1950), German-born British artist. He immigrated to England as a child and studied art at the Royal Academy Schools. He was hired by the actor-manager, Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree in 1898, and worked with him for sixteen years. He painted several portraits of Tree, and also designed theatrical programmes and advertising posters, programmes for the theater. He also drew many illustrations for theater magazines of his day. He is best remembered today for his many portraits of the stage stars of his era.

"Wandering Minstrel." I'm not sure if that's a character name, the title of the play, or both.