Falstaff with Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Page (Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act 5, Scene 5)

Henry Fuseli

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This rapidly drawn sketch conveys the essence of pose and gesture in a subject found near the end of Shakespeare’s play The Merry Wives of Windsor (act 5, scene 5). Believing himself irresistible, Sir John Falstaff has arranged a nighttime assignation with the canny housewives Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Page in Windsor Great Park, not knowing that the two women are fully aware of his ungallant intentions and intend to publicly embarrass him. Townsfolk approach at lower right, their presence signaled by the backward glance of one of the women.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art