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What Did Shakespeare Look Like?Dateline: 3rd April, 2009It is the plays and poetry that matter, not the physiognomy, but you can't help wondering. Following Shakespeare's death there was little to go by. The only images were the bust on the memorial in Stratford's Holy Trinity Church above his grave, which has been described as looking 'like a pork butcher,' and the bald egg-head of the Martin Droeshout engraving that fronts the First Folio edition of the plays. Both of these were done some years after his death, though when plenty of people would still have had strong memories of his appearance. Then from 1719 there was what we now know as the 'Chandos Portrait' which may date from earlier. It was the first portrait presented to the newly-formed National Portrait Gallery in 1856 and formed the centrepiece of their Searching for Shakespeare exhibition in 2006. Tania Cooper of the NPG strongly backs the claim that this shows the dramatist from life but it cannot be proven. This year Professor Stanley Wells, Shakespeare scholar and Chairman of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, presented a newly identified portrait that had been in the possession of the Cobbe family as another claimant to authenticity (See out news story of 11th March). A contemporary member of the family, Alec Cobbe, after a visit to the Searching for Shakespeare exhibition realised that one of the purported portraits in it was clearly a copy of their older picture. After three years of research it is now thought there is strong evidence that this could be a genuine likeness and the Trust is mounting an exhibition displaying it and related material. Under the title Shakespeare Found: A Life Portrait, it will run from April 23rd (which we celebrate as Shakespeare's Birthday, though in truth that has never been authenticated either!) until 6th September in Stratford-upon-Avon. (see www.shakespearefound.org.uk/index.html) At the same time at Twickenham, Surrey, there will be an exhibition at the Orleans House Gallery which carries the story of Shakespearean iconography into the eighteenth century and mid-Georgian Britain sculptors, in particular, contributed to the establishment of William Shakespeare as a National Hero. Rysbrack, Scheemakers, Cheere and Roubilliac competed with each other to create a definitive portrait of Shakespeare for their own time. This exhibition will culminate in Roubilliac's statue commissioned by the actor David Garrick for his Temple to Shakespeare in Hampton, beside the Thames just two miles upstream from Orleans House. Not only were Garrick's home and temple nearby but so were the homes of Alexander Pope and Horace Walpole (whose villa at Strawberry Hill is currently being restored), all three of whom play an important part in the story of how Shakespeare's status was so solidly enhanced. The Face and Figure of Shakespeare: How Britain's 18th century sculptors invented a National Hero, curated by Iain Mackintosh and Marcus Risdell, will unite the busts and figures of Shakespeare by the sculptors already mentioned, supporting them with paintings, engravings and memorabilia from major public and private collections. It runs at Orleans House Gallery from 18th April to 7th June 2009. At 2 pm on Shakespeare's Birthday (23rd April) there will be a performance choreographed at the Gallery by students of Hampton Community College (repeated at Garrick's Temple the following Sunday, 26th April, at 3 pm). The exhibition will also be supported by educational projects with local schools and community groups with professional artists to create contemporary responses to the exhibition themes. A special visit to the exhibition and the gardens of the house is being arranged by the Society for Theatre Research for Sunday 31st May when there will be an introductory talk by the curators and, after a break for tea, a talk by one of the Society's leading actor members. Full details of that are not yet available but members of the public will be also be able to attend and more information will be announced when available on the Society's website. On that Sunday there will also be a free shuttle service bus between Garrick's Temple and Orleans House. If you would like to compare the three portraits with claims to authenticity, go to shakespeareportrait.freehosting.net/index.html. For more information about the Society for Theatre Research and its visit to The Face and Figure of Shakespeare go to www.str.org.uk. Howard Loxton
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