William Shakespeare
After Martin Droeshout the Younger British
Sitter William Shakespeare British
Not on view
A watermark in the paper used for this print ("MICHALET") tells us that it is a nineteenth-century reproduction of Doeshout's famous portrait engraving. Made originally to embellish the title page of the First Folio (1623), the image portrays Shakespeare with a prominent forehead, long hair covering his ears, a mustache and mouche (patch of hair below his lower lip). He wears a starched white collar, and a doublet adorned with lace or braid and fastened with covered buttons. Since the original image was approved by actor friends of Shakespeare, who edited the 1623 publication, and accompanied by a laudatory verse written another contemporary, Ben Jonson, it is considered a good likeness.
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