Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
It looketh likely..
£10m price tag for only ‘living’ portrait of Shakespeare
A PORTRAIT believed to be the only painting created of William Shakespeare during his lifetime is expected to fetch £10million.
The masterpiece has been in a private collection and will attract interest worldwide when it goes on sale.
It is the work of Elizabethan painter Robert Peake, Serjeant-painter to King James I, and is signed and dated 1608.
Experts say a series of facts indicate the bearded subject is the Bard himself.
Researcher Duncan Phillips, an art and antiques writer, said: “We shall never really know what William Shakespeare looked like.
“But when you look at the evidence of this portrait, it far outweighs any other likeness of him. One historian said that if anyone was ever likely to have painted Shakespeare, it was Robert Peake.
“Shakespeare and Peake worked in the same building and would have known each other well.
“The painting states the sitter in the portrait was 44 years old in 1608, the same age Shakespeare was that year.
“There are many more links. The evidence is compelling.”
Peake was often commissioned by the Office of the Revels to paint scenery at the Priory of St John of Jerusalem in Clerkenwell, Central London. The
Comedy of Errors, Romeo and Juliet, Richard II, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet and Macbeth were rehearsed there and licensed for performance.
Another link is that in the 1620s, the Peake family commissioned an engraving by Martin Droeshout, who created the iconic image of Shakespeare used on his First Folio of plays of 1623.
Droeshout’s engraving was made after the Bard’s death in 1616 and is still the most commonly used image, despite the fact it may not be accurate.
Shakespeare also wears a similar period doublet in both Droeshout’s engraving and Peake’s portrait.
Finally, Shakespeare lived near Peake and evidence suggests he knew him – making the painter the natural choice for a portrait.
The painting is described as being in very good condition and has been examined by the Courtauld Institute in London.
It hung in the library of the Danby family stately home in the north of England until 1975. Its elderly owner, who wants to remain anonymous, hopes it will stay in the UK.
Expert Mr Phillips said: “There is more evidence for this portrait than any known painting of the playwright.”
Shakespeare and Peake would have known each other well.. it is compelling EXPERT DUNCAN PHILLIPS ON THE ROBERT PEAKE PORTRAIT