Roubiliac with the Model for Garrick's Shakespeare (Walpole's "Anecdotes of Painting in England," vol. 4)

James William Cook

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The leading French-born sculptor Roubiliac worked in London from 1730 and here models Shakespeare in clay. The engraving is based on a lively painting by Carpantiers (National Portrait Gallery, London and Yale Center for British Art), and versions of the model are preserved at the Victoria and Albert Museum and Folger Shakespeare, Library. In 1758, a related life-size marble was installed in David Garrick’s Temple to Shakespeare at Hampton on the Thames near Twickenham, later given to the British Museum, and is now installed at the British Library. Shakespeare’s pose is both thoughtful and dynamic, his sturdy desk indicates the lasting character of his writings, while the swirling cloak and arrested gesture convey creative genius.

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