The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust recently unveiled a newly found portrait of the poet William Shakespeare. The portrait is the only known painting of the famous author done during his lifetime. There are 2 other famous images of Shakespeare but both were done after his death — one is an engraving by Martin Droeshout made in 1623 and the other is a bust on display at the Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon made around the same time.
Painted in 1610, this painting is nearly 400 years old and has been reportedly sitting unnoticed in the Cobbe Family household for almost 300 years before a member of the family noticed a resemblance to already-existing portraits of the author. Upon further investigation, the portrait was indeed determined to be of Shakespeare and is even considered to be the source for at least several other well-known Shakespeare images.
This particular painting is significant because it shows the author as he might have appeared to his contemporaries (not bald, apparently). The full portrait will be on display at The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-upon-Avon from April 23 to September 6th in an exhibit called “Shakespeare Found”. But if you can’t make it there at that time, you can see a digital representation of it by clicking the image above.
The full police press release can be read here (PDF) and at the moment Lance Armstrong is on his way to being reunited with his unique bike. No tweets yet from Armstrong on whether he has actually received it from the police. But I’m sure that’s coming any moment now.
