The Lover, from the Seven Ages of Man (Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act 2, scene 7)
Medium
Etching and engraving
Dimensions
Sheet: 3 7/16 × 2 9/16 in. (8.8 × 6.5 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Harriet McDonald, 1941
Accession Number
41.91.160
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the poignant speech from Shakespeare's *As You Like It (Act 2, Scene 7), the melancholic Jaques describes the "Seven Ages of Man," timeless meditation on life's stages. *The Lover*, one of this series etched and engraved between 1825 1840, captures the second age: the lovesick youth, "sighing like a furnace with a woeful ballad his mistress' eyebrow. This intimate interior scene shows a young man immersed in writing, evoking the pangs of romantic passion amid Shakespeare's enduring poetry. Rendered by engraver Charles Heath the elder after painter Robert Smirke's design, the print exemplif...
About the Artist
William Shakespeare|Charles Heath, the elder|Robert Smirke (British|British|British|British) · 1840 |1831 |1564 |1564 –1877 |1912 |1616 |1616
British, active 1840–77|British, London 1831–1912 London|British, Stratford-upon-Avon 1564–1616 Stratford-upon-Avon|British, Stratford-upon-Avon 1564–1616 Stratford-upon-Avon