banks's best-known work is perhaps the colossal group of "shakespeare attended by painting and poetry", which since 1871 has been placed in the garden of new place, stratford-upon-avon. the high-relief sculpture was commissioned in 1788 to be placed in a recess in the upper façade of john boydell's new shakespeare gallery in pall mall. banks was paid 500 guineas for the group which depicts shakespeare, reclining against a rock, between the dramatic muse and the genius of painting. beneath it was panelled pedestal inscribed "he was a man, take him for all in all, i shall not look upon his like again". the sculpture remained in pall mall until the building was demolished in 1868 or 1869, when it was moved to new place.