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William Shakespeare is England’s most celebrated cultural figure, living from 1564 to 1616. Born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, he spent his professional life in London but regularly returned to his native town before dying there and being buried in the parish church where his grave can still be seen. He wrote approximately 37 plays as well as a sequence of over 150 sonnets, two long narrative poems and other shorter poems and is widely recognised as being the greatest writer in the English language, if not in the world.

This is one of the earliest memorial portraits to him, painted by Gerard Soest probably between 1650 and 1660. Shakespeare’s plays were becoming popular again after a period of being thought old-fashioned and unpolished.

Although it lays no claim to be an original likeness, it shows Shakespeare as a sensitive and thoughtful man, and demonstrates that there was already interest in finding a convincing image of the playwright whose work so brilliantly illuminates human nature.

This accomplished portrait was created long before he was popularly accepted as the symbol of Englishness which he was to become. The worship of Shakespeare, which became known as Bardolatry, gathered pace following the erection of his statue in Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey in 1740 and the first celebration of his life in 1769.

The painting is on display in the Exhibition on the Life and Background to Shakespeare at his Birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Category: People , Painting

Institute: Shakespeare Birthplace Trust