Chandos portrait

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The "Chandos portrait" is considered to be the representation of the English poet and playwright , William Shakespeare
The portrait engraving of Shakespeare by Martin Droeshout on the frontispiece “First Folio” is similar to the oil portrait

The Chandos portrait is one of the most famous portraits that are believed to depict the poet William Shakespeare (1564-1616). It was probably painted from life between 1600 and 1610 and was probably also the model for the portrait engraving in Shakespeare's folio (1623). It is named after the former owner of the picture James Brydges, 3rd Duke of Chandos . The portrait was donated to the National Portrait Gallery Foundation in 1856 and is listed as the first acquisition in this collection. So far it has not been possible to establish with certainty who painted the picture, nor whether it actually depicts William Shakespeare.

Authorship and Origin

It has been claimed that Richard Burbage , a friend of Shakespeare's (1567-1619), painted the portrait, however the earliest known mention of the painting is a note by George Vertue that John Taylor painted it. Taylor was a well-respected member of the Painter-Stainers' company and possibly the same John Taylor who starred in the Children of Paul's drama group . Vertue referred to Taylor as an actor, painter, and close friend of Shakespeare. Before the Duke of Chandos bought it, according to Vertue it should have belonged to Shakespeare's godson William Davenant (1606–1668), who according to the gossip chronicler John Aubrey was an illegitimate son of the playwright. He also claimed that it was inherited from Taylor to Davenant, later bought by Thomas Betterton and then sold to the lawyer Robert Keck. After Keck's death, it remained in his family and was bequeathed to John Nichol, who had married into the family. His daughter Margaret married the Duke of Chandos. The painting was then passed on to the British nobility until Richard Temple-Grenville, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, sold it to the Earl of Ellesmere in 1848 . Ellesmere then donated it to the National Portrait Gallery.

The learned view

The contemporary engraving from the “First Folio” published posthumously in 1623 is considered an authentic illustration of Shakespeare. It was created by Martin Droeshout and is believed to have been commissioned by Shakespeare's friends and family. It is believed that Droeshout's portrayal is very similar to Shakespeare, as the engraving was used by those close to the poet and, after its publication , was praised by contemporaries of Shakespeare such as Ben Jonson .

The fact that the Chandos portrait is very similar to Droeshout's engraving gives the assumption that it depicts Shakespeare a certain justification. Another indication is the fact that the Chandos portrait served as the inspiration for a larger, more detailed and also posthumously painted portrait - the so-called Chesterfield portrait (also named after a previous owner). It was probably painted by Pieter Borselaer with still living memory of Shakespeare in the 1660s or 1670s. The Chesterfield portrait is in the care of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-upon-Avon .

In 2006, Tarnya Cooper , a staff member of the National Portrait Gallery, completed a study of portraits considered to be representations of Shakespeare and concluded that the Chandos portrait most likely represents Shakespeare. Cooper refers to the earring and the loose collar bands of the portrait as symbolic marks for poets (the poet John Donne and Shakespeare's patron, the Earl of Pembroke , wore similar outfits). However, Cooper openly admitted that the authenticity of the picture could not be proven. She also found that the painting was badly damaged by cleaning and painting over. Some parts are scraped off and others have been slightly changed. The hair has been lengthened and the beard is longer and more pointed than it was originally.

effect

In addition to the Chesterfield portrait, at least one copy was made by an unknown artist as early as 1689. It was used as a model for many Shakespeare portraits of the 18th century. An illustration was made as an engraving by Gerard Van der Gucht for Nicholas Rowe 's 1709 edition of Shakespeare. Another print from 1747 is by Jacobus Houbraken .

Remarks

  1. ^ National Portrait Gallery - Portrait NPG 1; William Shakespeare . National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved June 11, 2009.
  2. ↑ a b c d e Tarnya Cooper (ed), Searching for Shakespeare, National Portrait Gallery and Yale Center for British Art, Yale University Press, 2006, pp. 54-61
  3. ↑ a b Cooper et al., 54.
  4. ^ Anthony Powell: Some Poets, Artists & "A Reference for Mellors" . Timewell Press, 2005, ISBN 1-85725-210-1 , p. 30.
  5. ^ Werner Habicht, David John Palmer, Roger Pringle, Images of Shakespeare: Proceedings of the Third Congress of the International Shakespeare Association, 1986 , International Shakespeare Association Congress, University of Delaware Press, 1986, p.27
  6. ↑ Tarnya Cooper, Pointon, Marcia ; Shapiro, James; Wells, Stanley: Searching for Shakespeare . Yale University Press, 2006, ISBN 0-300-11611-X , p. 48.
  7. ^ Charlotte Higgins: The only true painting of Shakespeare - probably . In: The Guardian , March 2, 2006. Archived from the original on July 12, 2012. Retrieved July 13, 2008. 

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