This bust of Shakespeare is located at the British Museum which does not charge an admission fee and does allow non-flash photography. It depicts the Bard older than usually depicted..and looking stern. He wears a flowing cloak over his high-collared blouse.
The placard accompanying this life-sized bust reads:
"William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Terracotta
English, Louis Francois Roubiliac
(1702-62)
A full-length marble statue of the
dramatist was commissioned by
David Garrick from Roubiliac and
was left to the Museum (displayed
in the King's library)"
This website (
visit link) offers reproductions of the bust for sale.
Read more about Shakepeare at (
visit link) which informs us that Shakepeare:
"...is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". His surviving works, including some collaborations, consist of about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.
Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613 at age 49, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the 16th century. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest works in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights."