The "Cobbe" portrait of William Shakespeare hanging in the "Shakespeare Found" exhibition at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
Image details
Contributor:
Paul Springett A / Alamy Stock PhotoImage ID:
BARNPXFile size:
70 MB (2 MB Compressed download)Releases:
Model - no | Property - yesDo I need a release?Dimensions:
4605 x 5313 px | 39 x 45 cm | 15.4 x 17.7 inches | 300dpiDate taken:
April 2009Location:
"Shakespeare Found" exhibition, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Warwickshire, UK.More information:
This newly discovered picture has descended for centuries in the same family, the Cobbes. It hung in their Irish home, under another identification, until the 1980s, when it was inherited by Alec Cobbe who was a co-heir of the Cobbe estate and whose heirlooms were transferred into a trust. In 2006 Alec Cobbe visited the National Portrait Gallery exhibition ‘Searching for Shakespeare’ where he saw a painting that now hangs in the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington. It had been accepted as a life portrait of Shakespeare until some 70 years ago, but fell from grace when it was found to have been altered. Mr Cobbe immediately realised that this was a copy of the painting in his family collection. Professor Stanley Wells, Chairman of The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, and one of the world’s leading experts on Shakespearian studies believes this portrait is almost certainly the only authentic image of Shakespeare made from life and since the 23rd April 2009 now hangs in the "Shakespeare Found" exhibition at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.