In recent years, many drawings have appeared which according to their owners depicted the poet (Twitter)
Displayed in London A painting said to be the only signed and dated portrait of William Shakespeare During its lifetime, it sold for more than 10 million pounds (about 12 million US dollars), according to the British newspaper The Guardian.
The owner, who has preferred not to be identified, wants to sell the painting by private treaty without an auction. It belongs to King James I’s court painter, Robert Peake, and was signed and dated 1608. The artwork went on display at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel on Wednesday.
Before 1975, the painting was in the library of a luxurious house in the north of England that belonged to the Danby family.
According to The Guardian, the painting’s owners say the connections between Shakespeare and Peck were “distinct” and that the artist was regularly commissioned to paint portraits of high-ranking members of society.
However, only two portraits of Shakespeare, both dated posthumously, are seen that correctly depict him: the drawing that appears on the title page of his first volume of works published in 1623, and the engraving near his monument at Stratford-upon-Avon. Knowing that Shakespeare died in 1616 at the age of 52.
“There is more evidence that this painting is by Shakespeare than any other known painting by the playwright,” said art expert Duncan Phillips, who examined the work before the sale. He added: “It is the signed and dated work of a portrait painter of important stature, connected with the artist who produced the portrait, which was published in the first volume of Shakespeare’s works.”
He continued: “The painting lived for 400 years, because it was owned by a family of Shakespeare lovers who hung it in their library.”
However, expert Michael Dobson told the Daily Mail that the belief that the painting belonged to the famous poet was “more wishful thinking than the truth”.
In recent years, there have been many claims to the authenticity of paintings whose owners claimed to belong to Shakespeare.
In 2015, botanist and historian Mark Griffiths claimed to have unearthed what he believed to be the only original Shakespeare painting in his lifetime. He showed a drawing found in a 400-year-old book, “The Herbal Our General History of the Planets,” which featured 4 characters, including the 33-year-old poet, according to Griffiths.
In 2009, another portrait of Shakespeare was shown in Stratford-upon-Avon, which also caused a lot of controversy. Sir Roy Strong, former director of the Victoria and Albert Museum and the National Portrait Gallery, said the claim that the portrait was of Shakespeare was “unrealistic”.
