Instead, Martin Droeshout must be incompetent; the Chandos must be of someone else; the face in the Cobbe is much better looking——anything but the truth, so help me Birthplace Trust!
And while the strange jacket and collar of the Droeshout can be explained by the Janssen , the heavy black lines that define the edges of the jaw and collar, lines of a sort that the engraver did not use anywhere else in the portrait, lines that questioners claim make the face look like a mask, cannot be explained by either portrait. Thus any discussion of efforts to provide the world with an acceptible portrait of the evasive genius must include the dozens of altered copies and obvious fakes.
Finally we come to the most important portrait of all, the one that got left out of the official travelling show, the one that, while it can now be seen in the Founders Room at the Folger Shakespeare Library, remains officially buried in their category of altered copies and fakes. Marion Spielmann, the first to peg it as a possible portrait of Shakespeare. Little did they know at the time what a can of worms this particular acquisition would soon become.
This would have been significant enough as the means for dismissing all three as genuine portraits of Shakespeare had not Barrell seen enough in the Ashbourne to switch his focus to its status as a portrait of the Earl of Oxford.
For just as the Grafton looks like an older Marlowe, so the Ashbourne looks like an older Oxford than the one portrayed by the Welbeck , painted when he was twenty-five. By the late s, efforts by Looney, B. A confirmed Oxfordian, by the time Barrell got permission from the Folger he was already aware of the similarities between the Ashbourne and the Welbeck , the one portrait of Oxford that no one has ever questioned.
Objects like the skull, a symbol of philosophy, or the book which could have been about anything, were often found in other portraits of the time. For all Charles Barrell had actually proved was that the portrait was of Oxford——not that Oxford was Shakespeare.
Why have they often made it difficult for the public to see it? Why have they come close to destroying it through their criminal negligence and the ruinous alterations ordered by past directors? As authorship scholar Jeremy Crick notes in his article in the De Vere Society Newsletter , despite having retracted all claims that the Ashbourne portrays Shakespeare:. Can there be any reason why the Folger would want to hold on to a painting of a minor Jacobean knight with no connection to literature?
Crick goes on to suggest that the Folger is hedging its bets in case Oxford triumphs and the Ashbourne turns out to be of immense value.
Doubtless should that point ever be reached, the original hairline will be restored to its original state in record time, if by now such a restoration is even possible. Now for George Vertue and his images of Shakespeare. Where does this apparently larger image of Overbury fit in? Is the identification of Overbury as the sitter for the Cobbe in its resemblance to known images of Overbury? Are there any other hints that lead to Overbury? Thanks for the link to the portrait in the Bodleian. Fit into what?
Overbury apparently had a lot of portraits painted of himself, some cheaper copies of others. Quite a few engravings were made from some of these portraits as shown on the National Portrait Gallery website. The evidence of the resemblance of these other portraits and knockoffs is, or should be, obvious from the images above. Wikipedia has a bio on him. You are commenting using your WordPress. Both of these portraits embellished on the Droeshout, introducing unrealistic details.
The painting was created by Soest some 21 years after Shakespeare's death and is primarily based on his imagination as an artist.
It is a wonderful work of art, but it is not of much value as an authoritative representation of Shakespeare. For an in-depth examination of the images mentioned above and more, please see the article Physiognomy and Portraits of Shakespeare.
How to cite this article: Mabillard, Amanda. Known as 'The Chesterfield Portrait' because it was once owned by the Earl of Chesterfield, this portrait has been attributed to the Dutch painter Pieter Borsselaer — circa decades after the death of Shakespeare.
An Ideal Portrait of William Shakespeare — In , the prolific Swiss female painter Angelica Kauffmann — created this portrait of Shakespeare.
Kauffman was notably one of the female founding members of the Royal Academy, becoming an academician in The Flower Portrait of William Shakespeare — c. Declared to be a forgery in , the 'Flower Portrait' was for centuries believed to be an accurate portrayal of Shakespeare. Originally believed to be painted in according to its signed date , it was in fact, painted in the nineteenth century.
It was clearly inspired by Droeshout's engraving of Shakespeare that appeared in the First Folio. New stories, newly added artworks and shop offers delivered straight to your inbox every week. Created with Sketch. About Discover Learn Support us. Main menu Close. Sign in Register. Email address. Remember me uncheck on a public computer. First name. Sign up to the Art UK newsletter. Did you know? Based on the myriad of portraits of Shakespeare in existence, we can probably assume that he was a white man with almond-shaped eyes, a longish face and a receding hairline In , to mark years since the death of Shakespeare, Twitter created a modern-day rendering of the playwright with an emoji — because we don't have enough of them already Despite the fact that it was produced by Harvey Weinstein and its historical accuracy has been refuted, there is perhaps no better cinematic portrayal of Shakespeare than Joseph Fiennes wearing tights in Shakespeare in Love The art of the Bard: seven paintings inspired by Shakespeare.
In the end, it is unlikely that the claim of the Chandos portrait will ever be proved beyond doubt. For many, it is of little account. The only true painting of Shakespeare - probably.
As six portraits go on show, research shows most likely candidate for true likeness. Chandos portrait, Sensitive The Chandos portrait, of a sensitive, almond-eyed fellow with a gold hoop in his left ear and a receding head of hair, has not always been regarded as having quite the look appropriate for England's national poet. Topics UK news William Shakespeare. Reuse this content.
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