Is this the face of William Shakepeare?

May 12, 2001 8:59 PM

Is this the face of William Shakepeare? Only two likenesses of Shakespeare are considered to be genuine; both were created when he was in his final years, or after his death. On Friday the Globe and Mail reported that an anonymous engineer in a mid-sized Ontario city has a painting, handed down through twelve generations, of Shakespeare at the height of his career. It may be the only portrait painted of Shakespeare in his lifetime. Family lore states that it was painted by John Sanders, reputedly a bit actor in the same theatrical company as Shakespeare who also did such jobs as painting scene sets.
posted by tranquileye (9 comments total)

Oops. Image can be found here.
posted by tranquileye at 9:06 PM on May 12, 2001

What's he grinning about?
posted by gluechunk at 10:48 PM on May 12, 2001

And as his interests in the theatre diminished, Shakespeare began to channel his energies into his new group, the Spin Doctors.
posted by aaron at 10:53 PM on May 12, 2001

Which play has Krusty the Jester, then?
posted by holgate at 7:25 AM on May 13, 2001

What's he grinning about?

Because people are still reading, writing, performing and talking about his work 400 years after he died? It'd make me grin. :)
posted by LMG at 8:01 AM on May 13, 2001

Thanks for this great post! It means a lot to me. For those who like to read: am finishing up The Late Mr Shakespeare, by a Brit writer Robert Nye, pub a few years back and now in paper. Narrator calls himself Pickleherring, and says he was an anctor in WS plays and knew him well. He says he is devoting his old age to telling the truth about WS--lots of good critical stuff here and lots of the erotic too.
posted by Postroad at 9:10 AM on May 13, 2001

Nah ... no likeness at all.

This is extraordinary, but if this questionable Canadian provenance is no bar, and the technical issues hold up, it's quite a find. (After all, they're still arguing about Van Gogh ... only a hundred years later.)
posted by dhartung at 10:52 AM on May 13, 2001

Is that an Izod shirt he's wearing?
posted by keli at 8:52 PM on May 13, 2001

i think i like Joseph Fiennes better.
posted by tolkhan at 12:45 PM on May 14, 2001