Mr. Kean in the Character of Macbeth

Mr. Kean in the Character of Macbeth

Henry Meyer

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Meyer's stipple engraving reproduces a portrait by Harlow that shows the actor Edmund Kean as Macbeth, a role performed at London’s Theatre Drury Lane in 1814. Kean became a celebrity that season and his nuanced style of acting is here suggested. Between 1810 and 1820 Meyer made over 200 prints of actors, writers and leaders of British society published in "Contemporary Portraits" and the "New Monthly Magazine."

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Mr. Kean in the Character of MacbethMr. Kean in the Character of MacbethMr. Kean in the Character of MacbethMr. Kean in the Character of MacbethMr. Kean in the Character of Macbeth

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.