Hear about the four states of the Martin Droeshout engraved portrait of William Shakespeare, first published with the 1623 First Folio of Shakespeare's plays

[MUSIC PLAYING] ERIN BLAKE: This is Erin Blake, Curator of Art, here to talk about the different states of the Droeshout portrait of Shakespeare. The copper printing plate that Martin Droeshout engraved was touched up twice during the printing of the first folio in 1623 and once more for the fourth folio 62 years later. That is, the print exists in four different states. Although there are four folios and four states of the portrait, the various states don't correspond to the editions of the folio. States one, two, and three are all found in the first folio. In this case, you can see one of each of the four states.

Only four examples of the first state survive. Two are at the Folger, one still bound in the book and the one at top left, disbound before the library purchased it. Look at the right hand side of the collar below Shakespeare's left ear to spot the main difference between the first state and the rest. In state one, Shakespeare's head doesn't cast a shadow on the collar. Because so few examples exist, it's assumed that Droeshout realized pretty quickly that the portrait looked odd. So he went back and added the shadow.

The differences between the second and third states are minor, a highlight in each pupil and an extra strand of hair. But the fourth state is heavily reengraved. Droeshout's original lines grew shallower as the plate wore out. So they held less ink and printed thinner and paler. Whoever touched up the plate in 1685 used cross hatching to darken it. Look at the facial hair in state four at the bottom right of the case. You can see how the wavy lines making up Shakespeare's mustache and soul patch now have diagonal slashes across them.