(Morgan Library, 2/5.)
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 resemblance to the famous engraving of Shakespeare in the First Folio of his plays.