Droeshout portrait
Encyclopedia
The Droeshout portrait or Droeshout engraving is a portrait of William Shakepeare
engraved by Martin Droeshout
as the frontispiece
for the title page of the First Folio
collection of Shakespeare's plays, published in 1623. It is one of only two portraits definitively identifiable as a depiction of the poet. The other is the statue erected as his funeral monument
in Shakespeare's home town of Stratford-upon-Avon
. Both are postumous.
While its role as a portrait frontispiece is typical of publications from the era, the exact circumstances surrounding the making of the engraving are not known. It is uncertain which of two "Martin Droeshouts" created the engraving and it is not known whether the features were copied from an extant painting or drawing.
Later copies of the second state, with minor retouching, were also printed from the plate by Thomas Cotes in 1632, for Robert Allot
's Second Folio
, a new edition of the collected plays. It was also reused in later folios, though by this time the plate was beginning to wear out and was heavily re-engraved. The original plate is still being used into the 1660s, and then disappears. Already in 1640 William Marshall
had copied and adapted the design on a new plate for John Benson
's edition of Shakespeare's sonnets. All subsequent engraved reprintings of the image are made by later engravers copying the original illustration.
. Except for his date of birth and parentage, very little is known about Martin the Younger, but since his father was an engraver, it has been assumed that Martin followed in his father's footsteps, and that he made the engraving of Shakespeare. As he was 15 when when Shakespeare died, he may never have seen him and it has been assumed that he worked from an existing image.
Research by Mary Edmond into the Droeshout family revealed new information about Martin Droeshout the Elder (c1560s - 1642), who was the uncle of the younger Martin. Edmond shows that Droeshout the Elder was a member of the Painter-Stainer's Company
. Edmond writes,
More recently, June Schlueter has found evidence that Martin the Elder was in London
when the engraver of the First Folio portrait was known to be in Madrid. Although she began her archival research hoping to prove Edmond's assertion that the elder Martin was the Shakespeare engraver, Schlueter concludes that the newly discovered evidence actually supports the younger.
The traditional attribution to Droeshout the younger is made on stylistic grounds. Droeshout the elder is generally held to be a more skilled artist than his nephew, and the clumsy features of the depiction of Shakespeare's body resemble other prints by Droeshout the Younger. The attribution to the younger artist is provisionally accepted by the National Portrait Gallery.
in his poem To the Reader printed alongside it, in which he says that it is a good likeness of the poet. He writes that "the graver had a strive / With nature to outdo the life" and that he has "hit his face" accurately. He adds that the engraver could not represent Shakespeare's "wit", for which the viewer will have to read the book.
Because of this testimony to the accuracy of the portrait, commentators have used the Droeshout print as a standard by which to judge other portraits alleged to depict Shakespeare. As the 19th century artist and writer Abraham Wivell
put it,
In a similar vein, Tarnya Cooper, in 2006, writes that "it is the only portrait that definitely provides us with a reasonable idea of Shakespeare's appearance".
In addition to its use as a template to judge the authenticity of other images, scholars have also
speculated about the original source used by Droeshout himself. Mary Edmond points out that Droeshout the Elder seems to have had an association with Marcus Gheeraerts
the portraitist, and notes that there is evidence that a portrait of Shakespeare by Gheeraerts may have once existed. She surmises that Droeshout's engraving may have derived from this lost portrait. Cooper argues that the poor drawing and modelling of the doublet and collar suggests that Droeshout was copying a lost drawing or painting which only depicted Shakespeare's head and shoulders. The body was added by the engraver himself, as was common practice.
In the nineteenth century a painting that came to be known as the Flower portrait
was located. This was inscribed with the date 1609 and was painted on an authentic 17th century panel. At the time this was widely accepted as the original work from which Droeshout had copied his engraving. However in 1905 the art scholar Marion Spielmann
demonstrated that the portrait corresponded to the second state of Droeshout's print. Taking the view that if it were the source, the first state would be closest, he concluded that it was a copy from the print. In 2005 chemical analysis proved it to be a 19th century fake painted over an authentic 17th century image.
The poor modelling and the clumsy relationship between the head and the body have led many critics to see the print as a poor representation of the poet. J. Dover Wilson
called it a "pudding faced effigy". Sidney Lee
wrote that "The face is long and the forehead high; the one ear which is visible is shapeless; the top of the head is bald, but the hair falls in abundance over the ears." Samuel Schoenbaum
was equally dismissive, "a huge head, placed against a starched ruff, surmounts an absurdly small tunic with oversized shoulder-wings...Light comes from several directions simultaneously: it falls on the bulbous protuberance of forehead — that 'horrible hydrocephalous development', as it has been called — creates an odd crescent under the right eye and (in the second state) illuminates the edge of the hair on the right side."
Cooper notes that "the art of printmaking in England was underdeveloped and there were relatively few skilled engravers. Yet even by the less exacting standards observed in England, the Droeshout engraving is poorly proportioned."
, who claim that someone other than Shakespeare himself was the real author of the plays, have claimed to find hidden signs in the portrait pointing to this supposed secret. Indeed Dover Wilson suggested that the poor quality of the Droeshout and funeral effigy images are the underlying reason for "the campaign against 'the man from Stratford' and the attempts to dethrone him in favour of Lord Bacon, the Earl of Derby, the Earl of Oxford, or whatever coroneted pretender may be in vogue at the present moment."" In 1911 William Stone Booth published a book which claimed to demonstrate that the features of the engraving were "anatomically identical" to those of Francis Bacon, proving that he wrote the works. He achieved this by creating "combination images" from several portraits of Bacon and then superimposing them on the engraving. Using similar methods Charles Sidney Beauclerk
later concluded that the portrait depicted the Earl of Oxford. In 1995 Lillian Schwartz
, using a computerised version of the same technique, argued that it was based on a portrait of Queen Elizabeth I
.
An alternative approach has been to claim that the portrait does depict William Shakespeare, but that it does so in a way designed to ridicule him by making him look ugly, or to suggest that he is a mask for a hidden author. The double line created by the chin and the collar has been used to suggest that it is a mask, as has the shape of the doublet, which is claimed to represent both the back and front of the body. Thus Edwin Durning-Lawrence
asserts that "there is no question -- there can be no possible question -- that in fact it is a cunningly drawn cryptographic picture, shewing two left arms and a mask... Especially note that the ear is a mask ear and stands out curiously; note also how distinct the line shewing the edge of the mask appears."
Portraits of Shakespeare
Within four decades of its foundation in 1856, upwards of 60 portraits were offered for sale to the National Portrait Gallery purporting to be of William Shakespeare, but there are only two definitively accepted as portraying him, both of which are posthumous...
engraved by Martin Droeshout
Martin Droeshout
Martin Droeshout was an English engraver of Flemish descent, whose fame rests completely on the fact that he made the title portrait for William Shakespeare's collected works, the First Folio of 1623, edited by John Heminges and Henry Condell, fellow actors of the Bard.-Shakespeare:Droeshout would...
as the frontispiece
Frontispiece
Frontispiece may refer to:* Book frontispiece, a decorative illustration facing a book's title page* Frontispiece , the combination of elements that frame and decorate the main, or front, door to a building...
for the title page of the First Folio
First Folio
Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. is the 1623 published collection of William Shakespeare's plays. Modern scholars commonly refer to it as the First Folio....
collection of Shakespeare's plays, published in 1623. It is one of only two portraits definitively identifiable as a depiction of the poet. The other is the statue erected as his funeral monument
Shakespeare's funerary monument
The Shakespeare funerary monument is a memorial to William Shakespeare located inside Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, UK, the same church in which Shakespeare was baptised....
in Shakespeare's home town of Stratford-upon-Avon
Stratford-upon-Avon
Stratford-upon-Avon is a market town and civil parish in south Warwickshire, England. It lies on the River Avon, south east of Birmingham and south west of Warwick. It is the largest and most populous town of the District of Stratford-on-Avon, which uses the term "on" to indicate that it covers...
. Both are postumous.
While its role as a portrait frontispiece is typical of publications from the era, the exact circumstances surrounding the making of the engraving are not known. It is uncertain which of two "Martin Droeshouts" created the engraving and it is not known whether the features were copied from an extant painting or drawing.
States
The portrait exists in two "states", or distinct versions of the image printed from the same plate by Droeshout himself. Examples of the first state are very rare, existing in only four copies. These were probably test printings, created so that the engraver could see whether some alterations needed to be made. The overwheming majority of surviving copies of the First Folio use the second state, which as heavier shadows and other minor differences, notably in the jawline and the moustache.Later copies of the second state, with minor retouching, were also printed from the plate by Thomas Cotes in 1632, for Robert Allot
Robert Allot
Robert Allot was a London bookseller and publisher of the early Caroline era; his shop was at the sign of the black bear in St. Paul's Churchyard...
's Second Folio
Second Folio
Second Folio is the term applied to the 1632 edition of the works of William Shakespeare, following upon the First Folio of 1623.Much language was updated; there are almost 1,700 changes from the First Folio....
, a new edition of the collected plays. It was also reused in later folios, though by this time the plate was beginning to wear out and was heavily re-engraved. The original plate is still being used into the 1660s, and then disappears. Already in 1640 William Marshall
William Marshall (illustrator)
William Marshall was a seventeenth century British engraver and illustrator, best known for his print depicting "Charles the Martyr", a symbolic portrayal of King Charles I of England as a Christian martyr.-Early career:...
had copied and adapted the design on a new plate for John Benson
John Benson (publisher)
John Benson was a London publisher of the middle seventeenth century, best remembered for a historically important publication of the Sonnets and miscellaneous poems of William Shakespeare in 1640....
's edition of Shakespeare's sonnets. All subsequent engraved reprintings of the image are made by later engravers copying the original illustration.
Which Martin Droeshout?
The Droeshouts were a family of artists from the Netherlands, who had moved to Britain. Because there are two members of the family named Martin there has been some dispute about which of the two created the engraving. Most sources state that the engraver was Martin Droeshout the Younger (1601 - after 1639), the son of Michael Droeshout, an immigrant from BrusselsBrussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
. Except for his date of birth and parentage, very little is known about Martin the Younger, but since his father was an engraver, it has been assumed that Martin followed in his father's footsteps, and that he made the engraving of Shakespeare. As he was 15 when when Shakespeare died, he may never have seen him and it has been assumed that he worked from an existing image.
Research by Mary Edmond into the Droeshout family revealed new information about Martin Droeshout the Elder (c1560s - 1642), who was the uncle of the younger Martin. Edmond shows that Droeshout the Elder was a member of the Painter-Stainer's Company
Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers
The Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. An organisation of stainers, or painters of metals and wood, is known to have existed as early as 1268. A similar organisation of painters, who generally worked on cloth, existed as early as 1283...
. Edmond writes,
- "It seems perverse to attribute the Shakespeare engraving to the obscure and unsuitably young Martin Droeshout, born in 1601, as is customary, when there is a quite well-documented artist of the same name to hand, in the person of his uncle".
More recently, June Schlueter has found evidence that Martin the Elder was in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
when the engraver of the First Folio portrait was known to be in Madrid. Although she began her archival research hoping to prove Edmond's assertion that the elder Martin was the Shakespeare engraver, Schlueter concludes that the newly discovered evidence actually supports the younger.
The traditional attribution to Droeshout the younger is made on stylistic grounds. Droeshout the elder is generally held to be a more skilled artist than his nephew, and the clumsy features of the depiction of Shakespeare's body resemble other prints by Droeshout the Younger. The attribution to the younger artist is provisionally accepted by the National Portrait Gallery.
Significance
The engraving is praised by Ben JonsonBen Jonson
Benjamin Jonson was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, which are considered his best, and his lyric poems...
in his poem To the Reader printed alongside it, in which he says that it is a good likeness of the poet. He writes that "the graver had a strive / With nature to outdo the life" and that he has "hit his face" accurately. He adds that the engraver could not represent Shakespeare's "wit", for which the viewer will have to read the book.
Because of this testimony to the accuracy of the portrait, commentators have used the Droeshout print as a standard by which to judge other portraits alleged to depict Shakespeare. As the 19th century artist and writer Abraham Wivell
Abraham Wivell
Abraham Wivell was a British portrait painter, writer and pioneer of fire protection, credited with inventing the first effective fire escape system.After working as a hairdresser, Wivell established himself as a society portrait painter...
put it,
It is, as I may say, is the key to unlock and detect almost all the impositions that have, at various times, arrested so much of public attention. It is a witness that can refute all false evidence, and will satisfy every discerner, how to appreciate, how to convict.
In a similar vein, Tarnya Cooper, in 2006, writes that "it is the only portrait that definitely provides us with a reasonable idea of Shakespeare's appearance".
Source image
speculated about the original source used by Droeshout himself. Mary Edmond points out that Droeshout the Elder seems to have had an association with Marcus Gheeraerts
Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger
Marcus Gheeraerts was an artist of the Tudor court, described as "the most important artist of quality to work in England in large-scale between Eworth and Van Dyck" He was brought to England as a child by his father Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder, also a painter...
the portraitist, and notes that there is evidence that a portrait of Shakespeare by Gheeraerts may have once existed. She surmises that Droeshout's engraving may have derived from this lost portrait. Cooper argues that the poor drawing and modelling of the doublet and collar suggests that Droeshout was copying a lost drawing or painting which only depicted Shakespeare's head and shoulders. The body was added by the engraver himself, as was common practice.
In the nineteenth century a painting that came to be known as the Flower portrait
Flower portrait
The Flower portrait is a name of one of the painted Portraits of William Shakespeare. A 2005 investigation of the portrait led to the conclusion that it was painted in the 19th century....
was located. This was inscribed with the date 1609 and was painted on an authentic 17th century panel. At the time this was widely accepted as the original work from which Droeshout had copied his engraving. However in 1905 the art scholar Marion Spielmann
Marion Spielmann
Marion Harry Alexander Spielmann was a prolific Victorian art critic and scholar who was the editor of The Connoisseur and Magazine of Art...
demonstrated that the portrait corresponded to the second state of Droeshout's print. Taking the view that if it were the source, the first state would be closest, he concluded that it was a copy from the print. In 2005 chemical analysis proved it to be a 19th century fake painted over an authentic 17th century image.
Critical evaluations
J. Dover Wilson
John Dover Wilson CH was a professor and scholar of Renaissance drama, focusing particularly on the work of William Shakespeare...
called it a "pudding faced effigy". Sidney Lee
Sidney Lee
Sir Sidney Lee was an English biographer and critic.He was born Solomon Lazarus Lee at 12 Keppel Street, Bloomsbury, London and educated at the City of London School and at Balliol College, Oxford, where he graduated in modern history in 1882. In the next year he became assistant-editor of the...
wrote that "The face is long and the forehead high; the one ear which is visible is shapeless; the top of the head is bald, but the hair falls in abundance over the ears." Samuel Schoenbaum
Samuel Schoenbaum
Samuel Schoenbaum was a leading 20th century Shakespearean biographer and scholar.Born in New York, Schoenbaum taught at Northwestern University from 1953 to 1975, serving for the last four years of this period as the Frank Bliss Snyder Professor of English Literature. He later taught at the City...
was equally dismissive, "a huge head, placed against a starched ruff, surmounts an absurdly small tunic with oversized shoulder-wings...Light comes from several directions simultaneously: it falls on the bulbous protuberance of forehead — that 'horrible hydrocephalous development', as it has been called — creates an odd crescent under the right eye and (in the second state) illuminates the edge of the hair on the right side."
Cooper notes that "the art of printmaking in England was underdeveloped and there were relatively few skilled engravers. Yet even by the less exacting standards observed in England, the Droeshout engraving is poorly proportioned."
Conspiracy theories
Proponents of the Shakespeare authorship questionShakespeare authorship question
Image:ShakespeareCandidates1.jpg|thumb|alt=Portraits of Shakespeare and four proposed alternative authors.|Oxford, Bacon, Derby, and Marlowe have each been proposed as the true author...
, who claim that someone other than Shakespeare himself was the real author of the plays, have claimed to find hidden signs in the portrait pointing to this supposed secret. Indeed Dover Wilson suggested that the poor quality of the Droeshout and funeral effigy images are the underlying reason for "the campaign against 'the man from Stratford' and the attempts to dethrone him in favour of Lord Bacon, the Earl of Derby, the Earl of Oxford, or whatever coroneted pretender may be in vogue at the present moment."" In 1911 William Stone Booth published a book which claimed to demonstrate that the features of the engraving were "anatomically identical" to those of Francis Bacon, proving that he wrote the works. He achieved this by creating "combination images" from several portraits of Bacon and then superimposing them on the engraving. Using similar methods Charles Sidney Beauclerk
Charles Sidney Beauclerk
Fr Charles Sidney de Vere Beauclerk SJ was a Jesuit priest who attempted to turn the town of Holywell into the "Lourdes of Wales"...
later concluded that the portrait depicted the Earl of Oxford. In 1995 Lillian Schwartz
Lillian Schwartz
Lillian F. Schwartz is an American artist who is known for being a creator of 20th century computer-developed art. One notable work she created is Mona Leo, where she morphed the image of a Leonardo da Vinci self-portrait with the Mona Lisa.She made one of the first digitally created films to be...
, using a computerised version of the same technique, argued that it was based on a portrait of Queen Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
.
An alternative approach has been to claim that the portrait does depict William Shakespeare, but that it does so in a way designed to ridicule him by making him look ugly, or to suggest that he is a mask for a hidden author. The double line created by the chin and the collar has been used to suggest that it is a mask, as has the shape of the doublet, which is claimed to represent both the back and front of the body. Thus Edwin Durning-Lawrence
Edwin Durning-Lawrence
Sir Edwin Durning-Lawrence, 1st Baronet was a British lawyer and Member of Parliament.He is best known for his advocacy of the Baconian theory of Shakespeare authorship, which asserts that Francis Bacon was the author of Shakespeare's plays. He published a number of books on the subject and...
asserts that "there is no question -- there can be no possible question -- that in fact it is a cunningly drawn cryptographic picture, shewing two left arms and a mask... Especially note that the ear is a mask ear and stands out curiously; note also how distinct the line shewing the edge of the mask appears."