When you think of Shakespeare , you believably have a particular persona of the Bard in mind : a fall behind hairline , heavy - lidded optic , a thin mustache , and long , wavy hair . As historical figures go , you ’d probably be able to clean him out of a lineup .
The picture you have in your mind is almost sure as shooting based on just one root : the Droeshout portrait , a black and white etching that was the frontispiece of theFirst Folio(and can be go through above ) . trust to have been grow by Flemish engraver Martin Droeshout in 1623 , it was originally published seven long time after Shakespeare ’s death in the first original collection of his free rein . It’sunlikelythat Droeshout produced it from life , and most historians believe it was copied off an reliable portrayal made during Shakespeare ’s lifetime that has not survived .
In fact , no exist portrait show once and for all what Shakespeare look like in genuine life . Since the mid-17th century , scholars have thought that the figure in the belowChandosPortrait , painted in 1610 , was Shakespeare . While the house painting ’s provenance and painting style point to its origin in Shakespeare ’s fourth dimension , there is no definitive trial impression of the sitter ’s identity , accordingto Tarnya Cooper , author ofSearching for Shakespeareand curatorial film director of London ’s National Portrait Gallery .
Then there ’s theCobbe portrait(below ) . Once have by eighteenth - C Anglican Archbishop Charles Cobbe , it allegedly came to his family through the great - granddaughter of one of Shakespeare ’s patron , the Earl of Southampton . innovative testing of the painting evince that it was made after 1595 ; the fashions depicted suggest it could have been paint as latterly as 1610 . The unsung creative person could have captured Shakespeare in life-time , between the age of 31 and 46 , although the figure appears somewhat younger than middle - aged .
Cobbe descendant have reason that the work is the only survive living portrait of the Bard , but art historian Sir Roy Strong described that as " applesauce " ( version : nonsense ) .
In fact , some historian have advise that the Cobbe portrait is actually Sir Thomas Overbury , a poet born in 1581 . Verified look-alike of Overbury closely resemble the Cobbe figure , and — perhaps most damningly — the painting does n’t match the good exist image of Shakespeare from the same period , which was really a bust .
The " holy Blessed Trinity bust " was n’t made during Shakespeare ’s lifespan — it was commissioned four days after his death so that it could be placed above his grave in Stratford - upon - Avon ’s Holy Trinity Church . The sculpture depicts a portlier interpretation of Shakespeare than the one we ’re conversant with , presumptively because it shows him in his later life , and it does n’t look much like the Droeshout etching , the Chandos portraiture , or the Cobbe portrait — which are broadly similar . But because it was commissioned while his widow and son - in - law were still alert , assimilator believe it ’s a believable similitude of the playwright .
More than 400 year after his death , Shakespeare ’s reliable identity still stimulate public debate . For the meter being , a few secondhand images are the best hint we have to what he looked like . Luckily , his written work survives in far fuller fashion .
