In 1834 John Constable was one of several artists commissioned to design wood-engravings for The Seven Ages of Shakespeare, an illustrated compendium undertaken by John Martin and later published by John van Voorst in 1840.
The present sheet depicts Jacques, a melancholic philosopher in Shakespeare's As You Like It. The figure of Jacques was drawn by Constable again and again according to Martin. In the introduction to the book, Martin wrote: "The interest which [Constable] took in the trifling affair required of him, is best evinced by the fact that he had made nearly twenty sketches for the melancholy Jaques." Constable also made an earlier watercolor of the same subject (ca. 1828), which was based on a painting by Sir George Beaumont now in the Tate Gallery (no. 119).
Following Constable's death, C.R. Leslie had one of the sketches of Jacques engraved in August 1837. Though the Morgan's drawing is a work for this project, it was not the design ultimately selected by Leslie to be engraved.
McCrindle, Joseph F., former owner.