Flower portrait

Flower portrait

The Flower portrait is a name of one of the painted portraits of William Shakespeare. 2005 investigation of the portrait lead to conclusion that it was painted in the 1800s.

The name originates with one of its previous owners, Sir Desmond Flower, who gave it to the Royal Shakespeare Company. The painting depicts Shakespeare gazing out of the picture and wearing a wide white collar. The painting has a signed date of 1609, but many art experts had been suspicious of it provenance before.

The picture has been commonly used, for example, in the covers of Shakespeare's published plays. It is similar to the Droeshout engraving, that appeared 1623 in the first folio publication of Shakespeare's plays and is effectively its copy.

In 2004 experts of the National Portrait Gallery of the UK investigated three portraits of Shakespeare in preparation for the 150th anniversary exhibition due to begin in March 2 2006. In April 21 2005 investigators announced that the painting is not contemporary to Shakespeare.

Most of the pigments on the painting are those that were available at the 17th century but the golden braid of the doublet was painted with chrome yellow, pigment which had been used around 1814. The particles of the chrome yellow are part of the normal layer of paint, meaning that it was not painted afterwards. Therefore Tarnya Cooper, one of the curators of the Gallery, announced that the painting is a 19th century forgery, dating around 1818-1840.

The painting was painted on top of a sixteenth-century painting that depicts a Madonna and child with John the Baptist [Yale Center for British Art] .

References

External links

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/4471515.stm "BBC" - Flower portrait "is a fake"]
* [http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/04/22/world/main690086.shtml "CBS" - Shakespeare Portrait Is A Fake]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Portrait of Yutog Yontan Gonpo — The Portrait of Yutog Yontan Gonpo is an 17th century Buddhist depiction of the lama and the physician Yutog Yontan Gonpo of Tibet. This style of Tibetan thangka painting is called tsal thang with gold on a vermilion ground. The figure of Yutog… …   Wikipedia

  • Flower Island — Infobox Korean Film name = Flower Island image size = caption = Poster to Flower Island director = Song Il gon [Infobox data from cite web |url=http://www.kmdb.or.kr/eng/md basic.asp?nation=K p dataid=05526|title=Flower… …   Wikipedia

  • Portrait of a Courtesan (Caravaggio) — Infobox Painting| title=Portrait of a Courtesan (Fillide Melandroni) artist=Caravaggio year=c. 1597 type=Oil on canvas height=66 width=53 museum=Destroyed Portrait of a Courtesan (also known as Portrait of Fillide ) was a painting by the Baroque… …   Wikipedia

  • Cobbe portrait — The Cobbe portrait The Cobbe portrait is an early Jacobean panel painting of a gentleman which has been argued to be a life portrait of William Shakespeare. It is displayed at Hatchlands Park in Surrey, a National Trust property, and the portrait …   Wikipedia

  • Chandos portrait — The Chandos portrait The Chandos portrait is one of the most famous of the portraits that may depict William Shakespeare (1564–1616). Believed to have been painted from life between 1600 and 1610, it may have served as the basis for the engraved… …   Wikipedia

  • Newman Flower — Flower in 1917 Sir Walter Newman Flower (8 July 1879 – 12 March 1964) was an English publisher and author. He transformed the fortunes of the publishing house Cassell Co, and later became its proprietor. As an author, he published studies of the… …   Wikipedia

  • National Shrine of the Little Flower — See also the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Little Flower in San Antonio, Texas Shrine of the Little Flower National Shrine of the Little Flower Catholic Church in Royal Oak, Michigan is a well known Catholic Church and National Shrine… …   Wikipedia

  • Cyril Flower, 1st Baron Battersea — The Senator . Caricature by T published in Vanity Fair in 1882. Cyril Flower, 1st Baron Battersea (30 August 1843 – 27 November 1907) was a British Liberal politician and patron of art. Contents …   Wikipedia

  • William Henry Flower — Infobox Scientist name = William Henry Flower box width = image size = 250px caption = birth date = November 30, 1831 birth place = death date = July 1, 1899 death place = residence = citizenship = nationality = English ethnicity = field =… …   Wikipedia

  • Singapore Portrait Series currency notes — The Portrait Series of currency notes is the fourth and current set of notes to be issued for circulation in Singapore. It was first introduced on 9 September 1999 by the Board of Commissioners of Currency Singapore (BCCS) whose role was since… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”