Shakespeare Portraits

The 'Droeshout' Portrait

 Drawn by Martin Droeshout
 This posthumous engraved portrait was first produced for
the title page of the first complete publication of
Shakespeare's plays in 1623, known as the First
Folio (1623). The engraving was perhaps based on an
existing portrait which has not been identified.
Funerary monument to William Shakespeare b
y Gerard Johnson

 This limestone bust of Shakespeare was completed by the time

the First Folio of Shakespeare’s works was published in
December 1623.
 Chandos Portrait

 According to the catalogue of the National Portrait Gallery,

where the relic is now safeguarded, 'The 'Chandos' portrait
was the property of John Taylor, the player, by whom, or by
Richard Burbage, it was painted.

 The name arose as it was once in the possession of the

Duke of Chandos
The Cobbe portrait,

 It has been in the possession of the Cobbe family since the early
18th century, is a portrait of Shakespeare drawn from life. The
portrait is thought to have belonged initially to Shakespeare's
patron, Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, and to have
been copied by another artist who created the painting known as
the Janssen portrait, which had already been claimed to depict
Shakespeare. Tarnya Cooper, the 17th-century art specialist at the
National Portrait Gallery, argues that both paintings depict
Thomas Overbury
The Janssen portrait, c1610

 At some point this portrait was overpainted to make the subject look
balder. In 1988 the overpainting was removed. It is now thought to
represent Jacobean courtier Thomas Overbury