Chandos portrait

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The Chandos portrait, popularly believed to depict English poet and playwright William Shakespeare.

The "Chandos" portrait is one of the most famous of the portraits that may depict William Shakespeare (1564–1616). The portrait is named after James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos, who owned the portrait. The portrait was given to the National Portrait Gallery, London on its foundation in 1856 and is listed number 1 in its collection.

It has not been possible to solve the question of who painted the portrait or whether it really depicts Shakespeare. The playwright's other known contemporary image is the engraving in the posthumous First Folio (1623), made by Martin Droeshout and probably commissioned by Shakespeare's friends and family; it is considered likely that the Droeshout engraving is a reasonably accurate likeness,^[1] and the man in the Chandos portrait resembles the one in the engraving, which lends an indirect legitimacy to the portrait. Studies indicate that the beard and hair in the portrait were lengthened by later painters and the earring was not part of the original painting.^[2]

It has been claimed that Shakespeare's friend Richard Burbage (1567–1619) painted the Chandos portrait, but the first reference to it in a note by George Vertue states that it was painted by John Taylor, who is known to have been a respected member of the Painter-Stainer's company. Vertue also states that before the Duke of Chandos acquired it, the portrait was owned by Shakespeare's godson, William Davenant (1606–1668), who claimed to be the playwright's illegitimate son, according to the gossip chronicler John Aubrey.

The Chandos portrait inspired a grander, more embellished mid-17th century imaginary portrait, called the "Chesterfield portrait" from a former owner.

In 2006, Tarnya Cooper of the National Portrait Gallery completed a three-and-a-half-year study of the purported Shakespeare portraits and concluded that the Chandos portrait was the most likely to be a representation of Shakespeare. Cooper points to the earring and the loose shirt-ties of the sitter, which were emblematic of a poet (the poet John Donne and Shakespeare's patron the Earl of Pembroke sported similar fashions). However, she acknowledges that the painting's authenticity cannot be proven.^[3]