The Seven Ages: The Infant; The School Boy; The Lover; The Soldier; The Justice; The Sixth Age; and The Last Scene of All

細節

Henry Stacy Marks, R.A. (1829-1898)
The Seven Ages: The Infant; The School Boy; The Lover; The Soldier; The Justice; The Sixth Age; and The Last Scene of All
all signed with initials 'H S M' (lower right)
oil on panel
25¼ x 31 7/8 in. (64.2 x 81 cm.)
a set of seven with an additional plaque (8)

來源

Sir Squire Bancroft, President of the Green Room Club, to whom he presented this set.
The Green Room Club; Christie's, London, 26 April 1974, lot 129, (£472 to Chandler).

注意事項

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拍品專文

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players,
They have their exits and entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages
(William Shakespeare, As you like it, Act. II, Scene VII)

The convention of the Seven Ages - the infant, school boy, lover, soldier, justice, sixth age, and the last scene of all - had been well established in popular prints and paintings of 19th century. Henry Stacy Marks had been taught through the influence of his father, a carriage maker, to read and learn the works of Shakespeare and it remained, along with a more general interest in the Middle Ages, a constant source of inspiration. In particular the theme of the Seven Ages was used for a series of panels to decorate rooms at Eaton Hall, Cheshire for the Duke of Westminster, and also for The Hill, Witley, house of the watercolourist Myles Birket Foster. It is possible that this particular set came from one of these two sources. Minton also commissioned a series of panel tablets of the Seven Ages through the Art Pottery Studio, and ceramic chargers with this subject matter also exist.