Portraits of Shakespeare

Portraits of Shakespeare

No contemporary physical description of the English playwright William Shakespeare is known to exist. The two portraits of him that are the most famous may be from after his death. These are the engraving on the title-page of the First Folio, published in 1623, and the sculpture that adorns his memorial in Stratford upon Avon, made before 1623. Many other paintings from that time might show him, but we cannot be sure.

There is no proof that Shakespeare ever asked someone to paint his portrait.

After Shakespeare passed away, his fame grew, and artists began creating portraits and paintings of him. Some were based on older images, while others were completely made up. Statues to honor him were built, first in Britain and later in other parts of the world. Because many people wanted real portraits, some fake or wrongly identified pictures appeared for sale.

Portraits clearly identified as Shakespeare

There are two pictures that people agree are of Shakespeare. They might have been made after he died.

• The Droeshout portrait. This is an engraving made by Martin Droeshout for the cover of the First Folio, printed in 1622 and published in 1623. A poem by Ben Jonson in the book says it looks like Shakespeare.
• The statue in Shakespeare's funerary monument, located in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon. This half-statue on his memorial was put up by 1623, as mentioned in a note for the First Folio.

Possible portraits

There are several portraits from the 17th century that people have said might be Shakespeare, but we don't really know if they are.

Probably made during Shakespeare's lifetime

• The Chandos portrait. This painting is thought to have been made around 1610 by John Taylor. In 2006, the National Portrait Gallery, London said it might be the best chance we have to see what Shakespeare really looked like.
• The Chess Players by Karel van Mander. Some thought this was a picture of Ben Jonson and Shakespeare playing chess, but most experts disagree.
• The Cobbe portrait. In 2009, some people said this painting might be Shakespeare. It has been in a family for a long time.
• The Grafton portrait. This painting shows a man who was about the same age Shakespeare was in 1588, but experts think it probably isn't him.
• Reputed portrait in John Gerard's Herball. In 2015, someone said they saw Shakespeare on the cover of an old book, but others aren't so sure.
• A Man Clasping a Hand from a Cloud, by Nicholas Hilliard. Some thought this was Shakespeare, but others think it's someone else.
• The Peake portrait. This painting was said to be Shakespeare and was made around 1608, but experts aren't convinced.
• The Sanders portrait. This painting has a label saying it's Shakespeare from 1603. Some tests suggest it might be from his time, but there are doubts.
• The Wadlow portrait. This painting is believed to show Shakespeare from 1595. Tests have shown it might have been painted from life.
• The Zuccari portrait. This portrait was once thought to be by an artist who lived when Shakespeare did, but now we don't know if it's him.

Gallery: portraits claimed to be of Shakespeare painted from life

The [Chandos portrait](/wiki/Chandos_portrait)

The [Cobbe portrait](/wiki/Cobbe_portrait)

The Janssen portrait

The Janssen portrait as it appeared before restoration in 1988

[Nicholas Hilliard](/wiki/Nicholas_Hilliard): Man Clasping Hand from a Cloud

The [Grafton portrait](/wiki/Grafton_portrait)

[The Sanders portrait](/wiki/The_Sanders_Portrait)

The Wadlow Portrait

The [Flower portrait](/wiki/Flower_portrait) (known to be a 19th-century forgery)

The Chess Players

A print after the Zuccari portrait

Reputed portrait in John Gerard's _Herball_

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  Engraving of The Felton portrait

The Stratford portrait

The Hampton Court portrait

The Ely Palace portrait

The Lumley portrait

• The Dunford portrait

The Stace portrait

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  The Hilliard miniature

The Auriol miniature

The Welbeck Abbey miniature

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  Portrait presented to the Shakespeare Memorial by Lord Ronald Sutherland Gower

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  Portrait presented to the Shakespeare memorial by T. Kite, likely painted around 1650

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  Portrait presented to the Shakespeare Memorial by Henry Graves

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  The Van Dyck portrait

Probably made within living memory of Shakespeare

After Shakespeare died, some portraits were made based on old pictures or people's memories. The most important ones are:

• The Soest portrait, probably painted by Gerard Soest. It was described by George Vertue and was thought to be based on someone who looked like Shakespeare.
• The Chesterfield portrait, from about 1660–1670. It might have been painted by a Dutch artist and is thought to be based on the Chandos portrait.
• The Marshall portrait. An engraving made for a book of Shakespeare's poems in 1640.

Gallery: portraits probably made within living memory of Shakespeare

The Soest portrait, painted at least 20 years after Shakespeare's death

The Chesterfield portrait, attributed to Borsseler, and the earliest known aggrandized image of Shakespeare

The Marshall portrait, made for John Benson's 1640 edition of Shakespeare's poems

Later works, misidentifications, and fakes

Many copies and changes were made to pictures of Shakespeare in the 1600s and 1700s. Artists like William Faithorne and Louis Francois Roubiliac made new versions of older pictures. By the 1800s, even more versions appeared, including works by William Blake.

One famous painting called the Stratford portrait was thought to be very old, but we now believe it was made in the 1700s. It looks very similar to a statue of Shakespeare in Stratford.

As more people wanted pictures of Shakespeare, some old paintings were changed to look more like him. For example, the Janssen portrait had its hairline altered and was given a fake date.

In 1847, a painting called the Ashbourne portrait was said to be Shakespeare, but tests later showed it was really a picture of another man, Hugh Hamersley, with changes made to look like Shakespeare.

The Flower portrait was once thought to be one of the oldest paintings of Shakespeare, but tests proved it was a fake made in the 1800s.

Narrative and allegorical works

From the mid-1700s, many paintings and sculptures showed Shakespeare in special scenes to celebrate his brilliant mind.

Angelica Kauffman made a picture called The Birth of Shakespeare around 1770. It showed baby Shakespeare with figures for imagination and the arts of tragedy and comedy. At the bottom were symbols like a scepter, a crown, and a mask, hinting at his amazing future. George Romney painted similar pictures, including one where baby Shakespeare is between figures called Joy and Sorrow, with other figures like Love, Hatred, Anger, and Envy around him. He also painted a simpler scene called Shakespeare nursed by Tragedy and Comedy.

Thomas Banks created another picture, Shakespeare attended by Painting and Poetry, where symbolic figures celebrated Shakespeare’s creative talent.

In the same time period, artists also painted real or imagined moments from Shakespeare’s life, which sometimes became popular prints. This was especially true during the Victorian era. One popular story showed a young Shakespeare being brought before Sir Thomas Lucy for a misunderstanding about hunting. Another respected scene showed Shakespeare reading his work to Queen Elizabeth I, painted by artists like John James Chalon.

Modern works

By the late 1800s, pictures and statues of Shakespeare appeared everywhere. His face was used in ads, cartoons, shop signs, and even on buildings. This kept going into the 1900s. In Britain, places like Shakespeare's Head and The Shakespeare Arms became popular names for pubs. From 1970 to 1993, the image of Shakespeare's statue from Westminster Abbey was on the back of British £20 notes.

Artists have used Shakespeare's face in their work too. In 1964, to celebrate Shakespeare’s 400th birthday, Pablo Picasso made many simple line drawings of his face. Louis Aragon wrote an essay to go with these drawings. Later, graphic designers have used Shakespeare’s look in posters and illustrations. Examples include Rafał Olbiński’s Shakespeare in Central Park poster from 1994, a poster for the Victoria and Albert Museum, and Mirko Ilić’s illustration in The New York Times in 1996. Milton Glaser made 25 Shakespeare Faces for a theater poster in 2003.

In 2000, István Orosz created a special double-view portrait for the Swan Theatre. In 2013, Lego made a tiny Shakespeare figure. Most recently, in 2024, Graham Short made the world’s smallest portrait of Shakespeare on a tiny piece of gold inside a needle for the Royal Shakespeare Trust in Stratford upon Avon.