The Seven Ages of Man ('As You Like It', Act II Scene 7)

Mulready's Seven Ages of Man (c. 1836–38) illustrates Jaques's famous speech from Shakespeare's As You Like It depicting the seven stages of human life from infancy to second childhood. The Shakespearean subject gave Mulready's genre painting literary authority while allowing him to explore human development across the full lifespan — infancy, school, romance, soldiery, middle age, old age, and final decay. As a genre painter whose career had spanned similar stages of Victorian social life, Mulready brought personal resonance to the subject alongside his formal skill. The work demonstrates his ability to handle multi-figure compositions of symbolic complexity without losing the individual human presence that was his greatest strength.

The ambitious composition arranges multiple figure groups representing different life stages across a landscape setting. Mulready's careful differentiation of ages and types through physiognomy, posture, and costume demonstrates his skill as a figure painter.