1. As You Like It
By William Shakespeare
Illustrated by Hugh Thomson
Curated by Sara Hoegen

2. William Shakespeare; Illustrated by Hugh Thomson
As You Like It
Hodder and Stroughton of London in 1909,
number 334 of 500 copies, signed by Hugh Thomson
From Shakespeare’s first folio, As You Like It was written around 1600. Although
not the most highly regarded or acclaimed of Shakespeare’s plays, this pastoral
comedy provided Thomson with a great amount of inspiration for his beautifully
detailed, tipped-in and covered drawings.
There are 40 mounted color plates under captioned tissue guards that protect these
wonderfully detailed illustrations. The title page and introductions to sections also
provide the reader some pleasure though their intricately penned designs
interweaved with quotations from the text.

3. There are 40 mounted color plates under captioned tissue guards that protect these
wonderfully detailed illustrations. The title page and introductions to sections also
provide the reader some pleasure though their intricately penned designs
interweaved with quotations from the text.
Thomson’s drawings were exhibited on several occasions from the early 1890s and
onward, the first was a joint exhibition with Kate Greenaway at the Fine Art Society
in 1891.
J. M. Barrie, the author of Peter Pan (and many other outstanding works that were
overshadowed by that better known work) was a great admirer of Hugh Thomson
and his works. Writing to M. H. Spiellman, who wrote the memoir of Hugh Thomson,
Hugh Thomson: his art, his letters, his humor and his charm, with Walter Jerrold in
1931, he noted:
He was a man who drew affection at first sight, so unworldly, so diffident, you smile
over him and love him as if he were one of his own delicious pictures. What the man
was came out in his face and in all his attractive ways; it might be said of him that
he was himself the best picture he ever made. His heart was the gentlest, the most
humorous and so was he…
Student Curator: Sara Hoegen