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Pictures & Portraits of Shakespeare: What Did Shakespeare Look Like?

As always with questions of Shakespeare’s life and identity, this is a tricky area, full of supposition, conjecture and guesswork. No Sweat Shakespeare has looked into pictures of William Shakespeare to make it easier for you.
There are quite a few pictures and portraits of Shakespeare – each has their champions who insist that a particular painting or engraving or sculpture is the true image of him. Here is No Sweat Shakespeare ‘s considered opinion:

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Whenever anyone wants to create an instant recognition impression of Shakespeare they will present this kind of shorthand image – the dome-like high forehead, the beard and moustache, and the shoulder length hair. As soon as you see it you will think ‘Shakespeare.’ These stock images are inspired by the Droeshout engraving.

 

The Droeshout Engraving

It is a strong contender for the distinction of being a good likeness, although it is not lifelike. The English engraver, Martin Droeshout, created it for the First Folio (first edition) of Shakespeare’s published works. He was 15 when Shakespeare died and 22 when he did the engraving. It is unlikely that he ever saw Shakespeare but he is thought to have worked from an authentic portrait, which hasn’t survived.

The Hilliard Minature

Titled ‘An unknown Man’, the Hilliard Minature is very pretty but there is not a great deal of credibility in the claim that it is a portrait of Shakespeare. Apart from everything else, it is nothing like the more credible images, and is an expensive painting by a society artist. It is also clearly a portrait of a young aristocrat, which Shakespeare was not. No Sweat Shakespeare doesn’t understand why anyone has claimed that it is Shakespeare.

 

The Sanders Portrait

The Sanders Portrait was discovered in an attic in a house in Canada in 2002. It created a great deal of interest and there have been numerous conferences about it with experts taking sides. No Sweat Shakespeare likes the idea of an authentic picture of the young Shakespeare but there are a great number of problems with it. It was painted when Shakespeare was 39 years old but it is a painting of a much younger man. No Sweat Shakespeare doesn’t know what to think about it.

 

The Chandos Portrait

The Chandos Portrait is lifelike and was thought to have been painted by a member of Shakespeare’s acting company, Richard Burbage. Unfortunately, most experts agree that it is unlikely that it is a portrait of Shakespeare. It does resemble the Droeshout engraving, though.

**Picture taken down by demand of the National Portrait Gallery in London. View the Chandos Portrait**

 

The Holy Trinity Bust

The Holy Trinity Bust was commissioned after his death by his son-in-law and placed above his grave in the Holy Trinity Church. His widow was still alive then, and we can’t imagine that they would have placed a false image of him over his grave! There is general agreement that this is the likeness of Shakespeare, looking rather old and bloated, but that’s life: we can’t expect our hero to fit the fantasies we may have about him. He was once a young man and wrote Romeo And Juliet when he was thirty. Wouldn’t it be a treat to be able to see what he looked like then?

No Sweat Shakespeare ‘s conclusion is that we should stick with the Droeshout engraving for a general idea of Shakespeare’s appearance, and go to Stratford, and visit the Holy Trinity Church for a true impression of what Shakespeare looked like shortly before his death.