William Shakespeare

Charles William Sherborn

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Derived from a sculpted monument at Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare’s birthplace, this portrait shows the Bard dressed in a doublet and winged collar, with an aureole of laurels behind his head. Emblematic additions include a skull, Tudor rose, and volume of his writings. A plaque below lauds the subject as poet, philosopher, and actor. Sherborn was known as the "Victorian little master," and worked for Swiss goldsmiths before leading a revival of copper-engraved bookplates in London and producing this jewel-like print.

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