3-016-913 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Portraits of Shakspeare, 1864. '...according to the best authorities, there is not even a portrait for which it can be asserted that he sat...The centre...[portrait] is the most authenticated and the earliest representation of the poet that we have. It is the bust in the chancel of Stratford Church, over against his tomb...The next portrait is that prefixed to the folios of 1623...it is in the right upper comer...[and] is the print by [Martin] Droeshout...The portrait which belongs to the nation, and which was asserted to be that of Shakspeare, we have engraved to the left of the bust. It is generally called the Chandos picture...On the left of the Droeshout picture we have engraved one from a print by Marshall...[from] the 1640 edition of Shakspeare's poems...The Somerset portrait, on the right of the bust...[is] stated to have been painted by Cornelius Jansen...The Felton Head, which is in the right lower corner, is from a fine painting, said to be by Burbage, but possessing, unfortunately, very little documentary evidence...Our last head, to the left of the Felton...is after a print by Simon, and was for a long time in possession of Cosway, who asserted that it was painted by Zoest, or, as he and others persist in spelling it, Zoust'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.