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Portraits of William Shakespeare
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| The 'Flower' portrait of Shakespeare executed on an elm panel is the earliest painting known definitely to be of Shakespeare. By an unknown artist, it was probably taken not from life but from the Droeshout engraving. | |
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| Commended for its likeness but not for its artistry, the engraving on the title page of the first folio (1623) is by Martin Droeshout, an engraver who, only 22 years old when the folio appeared, is unlikely to have sketched Shakespeare from life. | A monument to Shakespeare was erected not long after his death in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon, near his burial place. Probably commissioned by his family, it was executed by Gheerart Janssen. |
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| The painter of the Chandos Head, now in the National Portrait Gallery, is not known. Likely to have been painted some years after his death, it is the most romantic of the near contemporary portraits. | Attributed to the Italian painter Zucchero who died in the same year as Shakespeare, this life-size oval portrait was painted on a wooden panel. Proof that the subject is Shakespeare himself is not absolute. The engraving shown here is a 19th century copy. |
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| The Cornelius Jansen is possibly an early copy of the Chandos portrait, although a much more attractive theory is that the artist was in London by 1610 when he was commissioned by the Earl of Southampton to paint Shakespeare. | Engraved by W Marshall for the frontispiece of the 1640 edition of Shakespeare’s poems, this is a stylised copy — reversed — of the Droeshout. |