English School, 1602

Portrait of a gentleman, formerly suggested to be William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), bust-length, in a black coat with a white tunic and a golden signet ring

Details

English School, 1602
Portrait of a gentleman, formerly suggested to be William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), bust-length, in a black coat with a white tunic and a golden signet ring
inscribed and dated ‘1602 / ÆT. SVÆ : 25’ (upper left), and ‘Sperando Ferendo viuo vinco :’ (upper right)
oil on panel
23¾ x 18 1/8 in. (60.4 x 46.1 cm.)
with an unidentified monogram (on the signet)

Provenance

Private collection, England, circa 1814.
Private collection, Belgium.

Literature

J. Boaden, ‘Martin Droeshout’s Print of Shakespeare’, An Inquiry into the Authenticity of various Pictures and Prints, which, from the decease of the Poet to our own Times have been offered to the Public as Portraits of Shakespeare, London, 1824, p. 13 (p. 10 in some printings).
A. Wivell, An Inquiry into the History, Authenticity, & Characteristics of the Shakespeare Portraits, London, 1827, p. 60.

Lot Essay

This early portrait, seen by James Boaden some ten years prior to the publication of his catalogue of portraits of Shakespeare, was related by him to the celebrated Droeshout print, the only universally accepted likeness of the Bard. The enigmatic Latin inscription can be translated as ‘Hoping, Enduring, I live, I conquer’. A similarly cryptic motto, ‘Principum amicitias!’, albeit with a very different meaning, appears in the Cobbe Portrait, recently hailed as a newly-discovered life portrait of Shakespeare.

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