The Seven Ages of Man (painting series)

The Infant
The Schoolboy
The Lover

The Seven Ages of Man is a series of paintings by Robert Smirke, derived from the famous monologue beginning all the world's a stage from William Shakespeare's As You Like It, spoken by the melancholy Jaques in Act II Scene VII. The stages referred are: infant, schoolboy, lover, soldier, justice, pantaloon and old age.[1][2][3][4][5][6]

The set of paintings are in pen and ink and oil on panel, and measure: height: 381 mm (15 in); width: 505 mm (19.88 in). They are now in the Yale Center for British Art, though usually not on display. In 1796, Robert Smirke agreed to paint William Shakespeare's The Seven Ages of Man for John and Josiah Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery.[7]

Painted between 1798 and 1801, they depict the journey of life in its various forms.[8] They were produced for the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery,[9][10] and engravings by Peltro William Tomkins, John Ogborne, Robert Thew, Peter Simon the Younger and William Satchwell Leney based on Smirke's paintings were included in the gallery's folio edition of Shakespeare's work.[11]

  1. ^ "Robert Smirke (1752–1845)". Dictionary of National Biography, 1885–1900. Vol. 52.
  2. ^ "The Seven Ages of Man The Infant from Act II, Scene vii of As You Like it by William Shakespeare c.1798–1801". 1st Art Gallery Inc. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
  3. ^ "Peltro William Tomkins & Robert Smirke: As You Like It (The Seven Ages of Man: The First Age)". Art of The Print. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
  4. ^ Rusche, Harry. "Shakespeare Illustrated, The Artists: Robert Smirke, 7. The Seven Ages of Man". Emory University. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
  5. ^ Highfill, Philip H.; Burnim, Kalman A.; Langhans, Edward A. (1991). A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers, and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660–1800. Vol. 14. p. 129. ISBN 9780809315260.
  6. ^ Ritchie, Fiona; Sabor, Peter (19 April 2012). Shakespeare in the Eighteenth Century. p. 245. ISBN 9780521898607.
  7. ^ Ayres, James (30 June 2014). Art, Artisans and Apprentices: Apprentice Painters & Sculptors in the Early Modern British Tradition. Oxbow Books. p. 17. ISBN 9781782977421.
  8. ^ Thomas R. Cole (27 November 1992). The Journey of Life: A Cultural History of Aging in America. p. 24, note 64. ISBN 9780521447652.
  9. ^ International Shakespeare Association. Congress (1986). Images of Shakespeare: Proceedings of the Third Congress of the International Shakespeare Association, 1986. International Shakespeare Association. Congress. p. 122. ISBN 9780874133295.
  10. ^ Wigston Smith, Chloe (13 June 2013). Women, Work, and Clothes in the Eighteenth-Century Novel. p. 56. ISBN 9781107035003.
  11. ^ Friedman, Winifred H. (1976). Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery. New York: Garland Publishing Inc. pp. 203, 211. ISBN 9780824019877.