Portraits of Shakespeare
Encyclopedia
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
, but there are only two definitively accepted as portraying him, both of which are posthumous. One is the engraving that appears on the cover 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....
(1623) and the other is the sculpture that adorns his memorial in Stratford upon Avon, which dates from before 1623. However, several paintings from the period have also been argued to represent him.
There is no concrete evidence that Shakespeare ever commissioned a portrait
Portrait
thumb|250px|right|Portrait of [[Thomas Jefferson]] by [[Rembrandt Peale]], 1805. [[New-York Historical Society]].A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness,...
, and there is no written description of his physical appearance. However, it is thought that portraits of him did circulate during his lifetime because of a reference to one in the anonymous play Return from Parnassus (c. 1601), in which a character says "O sweet Mr Shakespeare! I'll have his picture in my study at the court."
After his death, as Shakespeare's reputation grew, artists created portraits and narrative paintings depicting him, most of which were based on earlier images, but some of which were purely imaginative. He was also increasingly commemorated in Shakespeare memorial sculptures, initially in Britain, and later elsewhere around the world. At the same time, the clamour for authentic portraits fed a market for fakes and misidentifications.
Portraits clearly identified as Shakespeare
- Droeshout portraitDroeshout portraitThe 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...
. An engravingEngravingEngraving is the practice of incising a design on to a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing...
by Martin DroeshoutMartin DroeshoutMartin 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 frontispiece to the collected works of Shakespeare (the First Folio), printed in 1622 and published in 1623. An introductory poem in the First Folio, by Ben JonsonBen JonsonBenjamin 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...
, implies that it is a very good likeness.
- The bust in Shakespeare's funerary monumentShakespeare's funerary monumentThe 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 the choir of Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-on-Avon. This half-length statue on his memorial must have been erected within six years after Shakespeare’s death in 1616. It is believed to have been commissioned by the poet’s son-in-law, Dr John HallJohn Hall (physician)John Hall was a physician and son-in-law of William Shakespeare.-Life:He was born at Carlton, Bedfordshire and studied at Queens' College, Cambridge from 1589, receiving a B.A. in 1593 and a M.A. in 1597...
, and must have been seen by Shakespeare's widow AnneAnne Hathaway (Shakespeare)Anne Hathaway was the wife of William Shakespeare. They were married in 1582. She outlived her husband by seven years...
. It is believed that the bust was made by the Flemish artist Gerard JohnsonGerard Johnson (sculptor)Gerard Johnson is the Anglicised form of Gheerart Janssen, a sculptor who worked in Jacobean England and who is thought to have created Shakespeare's funerary monument....
.
Possible portraits
There are several portraits dated to the 17th century that have been claimed to represent Shakespeare, although in each the sitter is either unidentified or the identification with Shakespeare is debatable.Probably made during Shakespeare's lifetime
- The Chandos portrait. This portrait is attributed to John TaylorJohn Taylor (painter)John Taylor was an English artist who is the most likely painter of the Chandos portrait of William Shakespeare. No other painting by him is known....
, and dated to about 1610. In 2006, the National Portrait Gallery, published a report authored by Tarnya Cooper saying it is the only painting with any real claim to have been done from the life. The Cobbe portrait had not been discovered at that time, but Cooper has since confirmed her opinion. The name arose as it was once in the possession of the Duke of ChandosDuke of ChandosThe title Baron Chandos has been created twice in the Peerage of England. It was first created in 1337 when Roger de Chandos was summoned to parliament. It became extinct on his death....
.
- The Chess Players attributed to Karel van Mander. This was identified in 1916 as an image of Ben Jonson and Shakespeare playing chess. Most scholars consider this to be pure speculation, but the claim was revived in 2004 by Jeffrey Netto, who argued that the chess game symbolises "the well known professional rivalry between these figures in terms of a battle of wits".
- The Cobbe portraitCobbe portraitThe Cobbe portrait is an early Jacobean panel painting of a gentleman which has been argued to be a life portrait of William Shakespeare. It is displayed at Hatchlands Park in Surrey, a National Trust property, and the portrait is so-called because of its historical ownership by Archbishop Charles...
: In 2009, Stanley WellsStanley WellsStanley William Wells, CBE, is a Shakespeare scholar and Chairman of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.Wells took his first degree at University College, London, and was awarded an honorary DLitt by the University of Warwick in 2008...
and the Shakespeare Birthplace TrustShakespeare Birthplace TrustThe Shakespeare Birthplace Trust is an independent registered educational charity based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England, that came into existence in 1847 following the purchase of William Shakespeare's birthplace for preservation as a national memorial. It can also lay claim to be...
announced that they believe this painting, which has been in the possession of the Cobbe family since the early 18th century, is a portrait of Shakespeare drawn from life. The portrait is thought to have belonged initially to Shakespeare's patron, Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of SouthamptonHenry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of SouthamptonHenry Wriothesley , 3rd Earl of Southampton , was the second son of Henry Wriothesley, 2nd Earl of Southampton, and his wife Mary Browne, Countess of Southampton, daughter of the 1st Viscount Montagu...
, and to have been copied by another artist who created the painting known as the Janssen portrait, which had already been claimed to depict Shakespeare. Tarnya Cooper, the 17th century art specialist at the National Portrait Gallery, argues that both paintings depict Thomas OverburyThomas OverburySir Thomas Overbury was an English poet and essayist, and the victim of one of the most sensational crimes in English history...
.
- The Grafton Portrait by an unknown artist of a man whose age, like Shakespeare's, was 24 in 1588. Otherwise there is no reason to believe it is Shakespeare except for a certain compatibility with the faces of other leading contenders. It belongs to the John Rylands University LibraryJohn Rylands University LibraryThe John Rylands University Library is the University of Manchester's library and information service. It was formed in July 1972 from the merger of the library of the Victoria University of Manchester with the John Rylands Library...
Manchester.
- A Man Clasping a Hand from a Cloud, by Nicholas HilliardNicholas HilliardNicholas Hilliard was an English goldsmith and limner best known for his portrait miniatures of members of the courts of Elizabeth I and James I of England. He mostly painted small oval miniatures, but also some larger cabinet miniatures, up to about ten inches tall, and at least two famous...
dated 1588. This was identified as Shakespeare by Leslie HotsonJohn Leslie HotsonJohn Leslie Hotson, also known as J. Leslie Hotson or Leslie Hotson was a scholar of Elizabethan literary puzzles.-Biography:...
in his book Shakespeare by Hilliard (1977). Skeptical scholars believe this is unlikely. Roy StrongRoy StrongSir Roy Colin Strong FRSL is an English art historian, museum curator, writer, broadcaster and landscape designer. He has been director of both the National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London...
suggested that it is Lord Thomas Howard, first Earl of SuffolkThomas Howard, 1st Earl of SuffolkAdmiral Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk, KG, PC was a son of Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk by his second wife Margaret Audley, Duchess of Norfolk, the daughter and heiress of the 1st Baron Audley of Walden....
. (National Portrait Gallery, London)
- The Sanders portrait. This has a label attached identifying it as Shakespeare and stating that it was painted in 1603. New scientific tests on the label and the oak panel suggest that it dates to Shakespeare's lifetime, which, if true, would make this a likely authentic image of Shakespeare. It is attributed by a family tradition to one John Sanders, or possibly his brother Thomas, who is believed to have been a scene painter for William Shakespeare's Theatre Company. The identification has been queried on the grounds that the subject appears to be too young for the 39 year old Shakespeare in 1603 and that the 23rd April birth date on the label reflects the conventional date adopted in the 18th century, which is not certain to be accurate. The inscription on the label "This likeness taken" has been criticised as not a contemporary formulation.
- The Zuccari portrait. A life-size oval portrait painted on a wooden panel. This was owned by Richard CoswayRichard CoswayRichard Cosway was a leading English portrait painter—more accurately a miniaturist—of the Regency era. He was a contemporary of John Smart, George Engleheart, William Wood, and Richard Crosse...
, who attributed it to Federico ZuccariFederico ZuccariFederico Zuccari, also known as Federigo Zuccaro , was an Italian Mannerist painter and architect, active both in Italy and abroad.-Biography:Zuccari was born at Sant'Angelo in Vado, near Urbino ....
, an artist who was contemporary with Shakespeare. It is no longer attributed to him, nor is there any evidence to identify it as Shakespeare, however it was probably painted during his lifetime and may depict a poet.
Probably made within living memory of Shakespeare
- The Soest Portrait, probably painted by Gerard SoestGerard SoestGerard Soest , also known as Gerald Soest, was a portrait painter who was active in England during the late 17th century...
. The painting was first described by George VertueGeorge VertueGeorge Vertue was an English engraver and antiquary, whose notebooks on British art of the first half of the 18th century are a valuable source for the period.-Life:...
, who attributed it to Peter LelyPeter LelySir Peter Lely was a painter of Dutch origin, whose career was nearly all spent in England, where he became the dominant portrait painter to the court.-Life:...
and stated that it was painted from a man who was said to look like Shakespeare. It was owned by Thomas Wright of Covent Garden in 1725 when it was engraved by John Simon and attributed to Soest. It was probably painted in the late 1660s, after the Restoration permitted the reopening of the London theatres.
- The Chesterfield portrait, dated 1660-1670, possibly painted by the Dutch painter Pieter BorsselerPieter BorsselerPieter Borsseler or Pieter Borselaer was a Dutch portrait painter who was prominent in England during the second half of the 17th century....
, who worked in England in the second half of the 17th century. Its title derives from the fact that it was owned by the Earl of Chesterfield. It is generally assumed to be based on the Chandos portrait, which is evidence that the Chandos was accepted as a depiction of Shakespeare within living memory of the writer.
- The Marshall portrait. John BensonJohn 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 1640 edition of Shakespeare's poems included an engraving of Shakespeare by William MarshallWilliam 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:...
. This is a stylised and reversed version of the Droeshout portrait.
Later works, misidentifications, and fakes
A number of other copies or adaptations of the Chandos and Droeshout images were made in the later 17th century and early 18th century, such as William FaithorneWilliam Faithorne
William Faithorne , often "the Elder", , English painter and engraver, was born in London and was apprenticed to William Peake....
's frontispiece of the 1655 edition of The Rape of Lucrece
The Rape of Lucrece
The Rape of Lucrece is a narrative poem by William Shakespeare about the legendary Lucretia. In his previous narrative poem, Venus and Adonis , Shakespeare had included a dedicatory letter to his patron, the Earl of Southampton, in which he promised to write a "graver work"...
, and Louis Francois Roubiliac's copy of the Chandos, made as preparation for his sculpture of Shakespeare. These increased in number by the later 18th century and early 19th century, including an adaptation of Droeshout by William Blake
William Blake
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
(c1800) and prints by John Goldar, Richard Austin Artlett and others.
The Stratford portrait was also probably made at this time. The picture is so called as it is in Stratford upon Avon. The picture was owned by a Mr Hunt, who was a town-clerk of Stratford. It was at one time considered to be the model for the Stratford memorial sculpture, which it closely resembles, but is now thought to have been created in the 18th century, based on the sculpture.
The first known commercial use of Shakespeare's portrait in a public context was the 18th-century English bookseller Jacob Tonson
Jacob Tonson
Jacob Tonson, sometimes referred to as Jacob Tonson the elder was an 18th-century English bookseller and publisher....
's shop sign which depicted him. It is not known which image it was based on, but it may have been one of the surviving paintings based on the Chandos.
Richard Burbage
Richard Burbage was an English actor and theatre owner. He was the younger brother of Cuthbert Burbage. They were both actors in drama....
. 18th century Shakespeare scholar George Steevens
George Steevens
George Steevens was an English Shakespearean commentator.He was born at Poplar, the son of a captain and later director of the East India Company. He was educated at Eton College and at King's College, Cambridge, where he remained from 1753 to 1756...
supported the authenticity of the work, which is similar to the Droeshout engraving.
A painting called the Ashbourne portrait was identified as a portrayal of Shakespeare in 1847, and it currently hangs in the Folger Shakespeare Library
Folger Shakespeare Library
The Folger Shakespeare Library is an independent research library on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., in the United States. It has the world's largest collection of the printed works of William Shakespeare, and is a primary repository for rare materials from the early modern period...
. The painting was reproduced as Shakespeare in the mid-19th century as a mezzotint
Mezzotint
Mezzotint is a printmaking process of the intaglio family, technically a drypoint method. It was the first tonal method to be used, enabling half-tones to be produced without using line- or dot-based techniques like hatching, cross-hatching or stipple...
by G.F. Storm. In 1940 Charles Wisner Barrell examined the portrait using X-ray and infra-red photography, as well as rubbings of the concealed paint on the sitter's thumb ring, and concluded that the painting was a retouched portrait of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford
Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford
Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford was an Elizabethan courtier, playwright, lyric poet, sportsman and patron of the arts, and is currently the most popular alternative candidate proposed for the authorship of Shakespeare's works....
, painted by Cornelius Ketel. In 1979, the painting was restored, and a coat of arms uncovered which identified the sitter as Hugh Hamersley
Hugh Hamersley
Sir Hugh Hamersley was a 17th century merchant who was Lord Mayor of London in 1627.-Business interests:...
. The restoration revealed that the portrait had been retouched to have the hairline recede, while the inscribed age had been altered by one year and Hamersley's coat of arms had been painted over. Nevertheless, some Oxfordians continue to support the de Vere identification, claiming that the fashions worn by the sitter date the painting to about 1580 when Hamersley would have been only 15.
Another example is 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....
, named for its owner, Sir Desmond Flower, who donated it to the Shakespeare Museum in 1911. This was once thought to be the earliest painting depicting Shakespeare, and the model for the Droeshout engraving. It was shown in a 2005 National Portrait Gallery investigation to be a 19th century fake adapted from the engraving. The image of Shakespeare was painted over an authentic 16th century painting of a Madonna and child.
Richard Owen
Sir Richard Owen, FRS KCB was an English biologist, comparative anatomist and palaeontologist.Owen is probably best remembered today for coining the word Dinosauria and for his outspoken opposition to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection...
, who also claimed that the Stratford memorial was based on it. The artist Henry Wallis
Henry Wallis
Henry Wallis was an English Pre-Raphaelite painter, writer and collector.Born in London on 21 February 1830, his father's name and occupation are unknown. When in 1845 his mother, Mary Anne Thomas, married Andrew Wallis, a prosperous London architect, Henry took his stepfather's surname. His...
painted a picture depicting the sculptor working on the monument while looking at the mask. The sculptor Lord Ronald Gower also believed in the authenticity of the mask. When he created the large public Shakespeare statue in Stratford in 1888, he based the facial features on it. He also attempted to buy it for the nation. The mask is now generally believed to be a fake, though its authenticity claim was revived in 1998.
Angelica Kauffmann
Maria Anna Angelika/Angelica Katharina Kauffman was a Swiss-Austrian Neoclassical painter. Kauffman is the preferred spelling of her name; it is the form she herself used most in signing her correspondence, documents and paintings.- Early years :She was born at Chur in Graubünden, Switzerland,...
's Ideal Portrait of Shakespeare was based on Vertue's frontispiece to Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson...
's edition of Shakespeare's works. Below the portrait is a symbolic figure of Fame adorning Shakespeare's tomb. In 1849 Ford Madox Brown
Ford Madox Brown
Ford Madox Brown was an English painter of moral and historical subjects, notable for his distinctively graphic and often Hogarthian version of the Pre-Raphaelite style. Arguably, his most notable painting was Work...
adapted various images, including the Ashbourne Hamersley, to create a synthetic portrayal which he believed was as authentic a depiction as possible. It showed Shakespeare as a commanding figure in a richly decorated room. On his desk are books representing Shakespeare's sources, including the works of Boccaccio and Chaucer. In a similar vein, John Faed
John Faed
John Faed, R.S.A. was a Scottish painter.Born three months after Queen Victoria, John was the eldest son of the six children of James Faed, tenant of Barlay Mill, Galloway, and Mary née McGeoch...
depicted Shakespeare at the centre of a gathering of scholars and writers in his painting Shakespeare and his Friends at the Mermaid Tavern (1850).
Narrative and allegorical works
Allegories
In addition to her Ideal Portrait Angelica Kauffmann created the allegorical The Birth of Shakespeare (c. 1770), which depicted the baby Shakespeare with the personification of Fantasy and the muses of Tragedy and Comedy. At the bottom of the composition are a scepter, a crown, and the mask of tragedy, portending the child's brilliant future. George RomneyGeorge Romney (painter)
George Romney was an English portrait painter. He was the most fashionable artist of his day, painting many leading society figures - including his artistic muse, Emma Hamilton, mistress of Lord Nelson....
painted a similar picture of a baby Shakespeare surrounded by symbolic figures entitled The Infant Shakespeare attended by Nature and the Passions. According to the description, "Nature is represented with her face unveiled to her favourite Child, who is placed between Joy and Sorrow. On the right of Nature are Love, Hatred & Jealousy; on her left hand, Anger, Envy, & Fear." Romney also painted a simpler version of the scene entitled Shakespeare nursed by Tragedy and Comedy.
Another allegory is present in Thomas Banks
Thomas Banks
Thomas Banks , English sculptor, son of a surveyor who was land steward to the Duke of Beaufort, was born in London. He was taught drawing by his father, and in 1750 was apprenticed to a woodcarver. In his spare time he worked at sculpture, spending his evenings in the studio of the Flemish émigré...
' Shakespeare attended by Painting and Poetry, in which the poet is glorified by symbolic figures lauding his creative genius.
Narratives
In the same period artists began to depict real or imagined scenes from Shakespeare's life, which were sometimes popularised as prints. The popularity of such scenes was especially high in the Victorian eraVictorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
. Most popular was the apocryphal story of the young Shakespeare being brought before Sir Thomas Lucy
Thomas Lucy
Sir Thomas Lucy was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1571 and 1585. He was a magistrate in Warwickshire, but is best known for his links to William Shakespeare...
on the charge of poaching, which was depicted by several artists. The more respectable and patriotic scene of Shakespeare reading his work to Queen Elizabeth I was also painted by several artists, such as John James Chalon
John James Chalon
John James Chalon was a Swiss painter active in England. He treated a wide range of subjects — landscapes, marine scenes, animal life, and figure-pieces.-Life:...
.
Modern works
The ubiquity of these stereotyped features have led to adaptations of Shakespeare portraits by several modern artists. In 1964, for the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth, Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
created numerous variations on the theme of Shakespeare's face reduced to minimal form in a few simple lines. Louis Aragon
Louis Aragon
Louis Aragon , was a French poet, novelist and editor, a long-time member of the Communist Party and a member of the Académie Goncourt.- Early life :...
wrote an essay to accompany the drawings. Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
also created a Shakespeare portrait (1962), repeating the Droeshout image in several colours in silkscreen and acrylic.
More recently graphic designers have played with the conventional motifs in Shakespeare's features. These include Rafał Olbiński's Shakespeare in Central Park, Festival poster (1994), an exhibition poster used by the Victoria and Albert Museum
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
and Mirko Ilić
Mirko Ilic
Mirko Ilić is Croatian and Bosnian graphic designer and comics artist based in New York.-Yugoslavian period:...
's Shakespeare illustration in the New York Times (1996). Milton Glaser
Milton Glaser
Milton Glaser is a graphic designer, best known for the I Love New York logo, his "Bob Dylan" poster, the "DC bullet" logo used by DC Comics from 1977 to 2005, and the "Brooklyn Brewery" logo. He also founded New York Magazine with Clay Felker in 1968.-Biography:Glaser was born into a Hungarian...
also created 25 Shakespeare Faces, a theater poster in 2003.
In 2000 István Orosz
István Orosz
István Orosz Hungarian painter, printmaker, graphic designer and animated film director, is known for his mathematically inspired works, impossible objects, optical illusions, double-meaning images and anamorphoses. The geometric art of István Orosz, with forced perspectives and optical...
created a double Anamorphic portrait for the Swan Theatre
Swan Theatre (Stratford)
The Swan Theatre is a theatre belonging to the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. It is built on to the side of the larger Royal Shakespeare Theatre, occupying the Victorian Gothic structure that formerly housed the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre that preceded the RST but was...
.