INCLUDES FIRST U.S. SHOWING OF TWO RECENTLY IDENTIFIED WORKS: THE "COBBE PORTRAIT" OF SHAKESPEARE AND A SIXTEENTH-CENTURY PAINTING OF SHAKESPEARE'S PATRON, THE 3RD EARL OF SOUTHAMPTON

Also on View is a Copy of the Morgan's First Folio Edition of Shakespeare Plays and Three Additional Portraits, including One Acquired by Pierpont Morgan

The Changing Face of William Shakespeare Opens February 4

In 2009, when the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-Upon- Avon unveiled a previously unidentified portrait with strong claims to be the only surviving contemporary likeness of William Shakespeare (1564–1616), it created an international stir. The Jacobean-era painting had hung unrecognized for centuries in an Irish country house belonging to the Cobbe family, and bore significant resemblances to the famous engraving of Shakespeare in the First Folio of his plays.