Shakespeare Portraits

A Shakespeare portrait owned by the Cobbe family for nearly 300 years was presented in March 2009 as the only known likeness to have been painted in Shakespeare's lifetime. Until now, scholars have deemed a woodcut by Martin Droeshout to have been the most authentic representation, but it was produced after Shakespeare had died.

A curious thing is that most popular depictions of Shakespeare show him to be balding, whereas this Cobbe portrait depicts him with a full head of hair, despite being painted approximately 6 years before his death. Could he have gone bald that fast? Or were most later portraits based on the apprearance of the Droueshout etching?

Take a look at the collection of portraits below and come to your own conclusions!

Shakespeare, The Cobbe Portrait, c. 1610

Shakespeare, The Janssen Portrait, c. 1610, altered c. 1770. The owner of the Cobbe portrait realized he might have a portrait of Shakespeare when he saw the Janssen Portrait in an exhibition on Shakespeare. They appear so similar - could one have been a copy of the other? The odd thing about this painting is that it was altered over 150 years later, to look more like the "accepted" view of Shakespeare, with a balding head. But when the painting was later restored, they realized it originally looked like what you see above.

Shakespeare, The Droeshout Portrait, 1623

Shakespeare, The Chandos Portrait, 1623.

Shakespeare, The Soest Portrait, 1660

Shakespeare, artist unknown, c. 1700. This painting was supposedly based on the Chandos portrait, above.

Shakespeare, The Flower Portrait, c. 1800's. This painting was done on top of a painting inscribed 1609, but was later determined to have been painted in the 1800's, which debunks the original contention that it was painted during Shakespeare's lifetime.

Shakespeare, The Sanders Portrait, c. 1603. This painting was labeled "Shakespeare" by either the artist, John Sanders, or by one of his kids, and it would have depicted Shakespeare at age 39. John Sanders was an actor in Shakespeare's acting company, so he would have known what Shakespeare looked like ... but some experts believe this was not truly a painting of Shakespeare, thinking that he looked too different from the appearance of Shakespeare in the Droeshout portrait, which is widely viewed as being an accurate depiction.

Shakespeare, The Grafton Portrait, 1588.. This painting is labeled that the sitter is a 24 year old man in 1588, which would have matched Shakespeare's age at that time, but the only other consideration that it might be Shakespeare is that the facial features resemble other portraits of Shakespeare. Is this enough to call it a Shakespeare portrait?