William Shakespeare

Charles William Sherborn

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Derived from the famous sculpted effigy in Holy Trinity Church at Stratford-upon-Avon, this portrait print shows Shakespeare wearing a doublet, winged collar, earring and goatee. Laurels behind the head form a secular halo, and the subject is surrounded by emblematic objects–a skull, Tudor rose, and volume labeled "Comedia, Tragedia, Poesia," with a plaque below lauding the Bard as poet, philosopher and actor. Known as the “Victorian little master,” Sherborn worked for Swiss goldsmiths before returning to London to lead a revival of copper-engraved bookplates. This jewel-like print is close in scale to a bookplate but was not produced for a single collector. The Museum has examples of most of the nine states which together demonstrate how carefully the engraver developed the image. The artist's son donated this second state of nine, where parts of the composition remain undeveloped.

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