15 Facts About Martin Droeshout

Martin Droeshout was an English engraver of Flemish descent, who is best known as illustrator of the title portrait for William Shakespeare's collected works, the First Folio of 1623, edited by John Heminges and Henry Condell, fellow actors of the Bard.

Nevertheless, Martin Droeshout produced other more ambitious designs in his career.

Martin Droeshout was an engraver after the conventional manner, and not a creative artist.

Martin Droeshout was a member of a Flemish family of engravers who had migrated to England to avoid persecution for their Protestant beliefs.

Martin Droeshout's father, Michael Droeshout, was a well established engraver, and his older brother, John, was a member of the profession.

Related searches

Martin Droeshout's uncle, called Martin Droeshout, was an established painter.

Martin Droeshout made at least twenty four engravings in London between 1623 and 1632.

Martin Droeshout's stated that the Droeshout oeuvre should all be attributed to the elder Martin.

Art historian Christiaan Schuckman believes that Martin Droeshout's move to Spain must have been caused by, or led to, a conversion to Catholicism, as many of these works depict Catholic saints and use Catholic symbolism.

Martin Droeshout's namesake, Martin Droeshout the Elder, is known to have remained in London and was a staunch member of the local Dutch Protestant community throughout his life.

Tarnya Cooper argues that the poor drawing and modelling of the doublet and collar suggests that Martin Droeshout was copying a lost drawing or painting that only depicted Shakespeare's head and shoulders.

Martin Droeshout later created portrait engravings depicting John Foxe, Gustavus Adolphus, John Donne, John Howson, George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham and other notables.

Martin Droeshout created more ambitious allegorical, mythical and satirical designs.

Martin Droeshout created an illustration depicting the suicide of Dido which functioned as a frontispiece to Robert Stapylton's verse translation of the fourth book of Virgil's Aeneid.

Martin Droeshout's ten known Spanish engravings are all on subjects with distinctly Catholic significance, differing dramatically in that respect to works he had been producing in Britain up to 1632, one of the last of which was an allegory of the theology of presbyterian Puritan Alexander Henderson.