Janssen portrait of Shakespeare [graphic].
Janssen van Ceulen, Cornelius, 1593-1661, artist, attributed name.; Jennens, Charles, 1700-1773, former owner.; Curzon, Penn Assheton, 1757?-1797, former owner.; Somerset, Edward Adolphus Seymour, Duke of, 1804-1885, former owner.; Ramsden, Guendolen, Lady, 1846-1910, former owner.; Ramsden, John, Sir, former owner.; Curzon, Frederick Richard Penn, Earl Howe, 1951- former owner.; Hamilton, Duke of, -1819, former owner.; Somerset, 11th duke of, wife of, former owner.
1610
Items
Linked e-resources
Linked Resource
Digital image(s) of Folger Shakespeare Library FPs17
Details
Title
Janssen portrait of Shakespeare [graphic].
Created/published
Early 1610s, altered before 1770, returned to original appearance 1988.
Description
1 painting on panel, irregular : oil ; 55.9 x 44 cm
Associated name
Janssen van Ceulen, Cornelius, 1593-1661, artist, attributed name.
Jennens, Charles, 1700-1773, former owner.
Curzon, Penn Assheton, 1757?-1797, former owner.
Somerset, Edward Adolphus Seymour, Duke of, 1804-1885, former owner.
Ramsden, Guendolen, Lady, 1846-1910, former owner.
Ramsden, John, Sir, former owner.
Curzon, Frederick Richard Penn, Earl Howe, 1951- former owner.
Hamilton, Duke of, -1819, former owner.
Somerset, 11th duke of, wife of, former owner.
Jennens, Charles, 1700-1773, former owner.
Curzon, Penn Assheton, 1757?-1797, former owner.
Somerset, Edward Adolphus Seymour, Duke of, 1804-1885, former owner.
Ramsden, Guendolen, Lady, 1846-1910, former owner.
Ramsden, John, Sir, former owner.
Curzon, Frederick Richard Penn, Earl Howe, 1951- former owner.
Hamilton, Duke of, -1819, former owner.
Somerset, 11th duke of, wife of, former owner.
Material base
wood
Note
Since its reappearance in 1770, this picture has most frequently been referred to as the Janssen Portrait of Shakespeare, after the artist Cornelius Janssen Van Ceulen. Other titles it has borne are the Jennens Portrait of Shakespeare, the Ut Magus Portrait, the Hamilton, the Rupert, the Somerset, the Balstrode, and the Ramsden. Since 2009, it has also been referred to as the Folger portrait.
The sitter's identity is uncertain. William Shakespeare and Sir Thomas Overbury have both been put forth as possibilities. See Stanley Wells, ed., Shakespeare found! (2009, rev. 2011) and reviews of same in Shakespeare quarterly (60:4, pp. 483-487; 62:2, pp. 281-284).
Inscribed in upper left-hand corner: "Aete 46 / 1610." (The two small letters "te" have been misread as "fe," which would mean the painter AE made this work. However, "e" is an abbreviation for "is," and the word represented is "Aetatis." The inscription is executed in oil paint over the dark brown overpaint covering the background. Give the style and costume, the date 1610 may well be correct)
Condition: the panel consists of a single oak plank, apparently cut radially from the tree. At some point prior to 1770 the hairline was raised. The ground is a thin cream-colored gesso. There are two severe vertical cracks. One runs from top to bottom on the right-hand side, passing the sitter's ear and curving gently at the bottom where it borders the sitter's left wing. The second crack is down the middle of the panel passing to the left of the figure's left eye. These cracks were visible early on, as they are commented on by both Boaden in 1824 (p. 194) and Wivell in 1827 (pp. 108-09, n.). There is a third crack that starts at the top, 6 1/2 inches from the left edge, and ends near the right eye. The cradling consists of five vertical battens of irregular widths and spacing and five horizontal battens. Spielmann described it in 1909 as "on panel, very roughly hewn at the back and held together by three strengthening uprights-not a recent addition-and strips of canvas glued against the two cracks" (p. 232)
Versions: Spielmann lists the chief "copies" as the "Buckston" or "Duke of Kingston," which he believes to be early 18th century; the "Croker"; the "Staunton" (see no. 161); the "Duke of Anhalt," which is stated as having been executed in England in 1763-64; the "Earl of Darnley"; and the "Marsden."
The sitter's identity is uncertain. William Shakespeare and Sir Thomas Overbury have both been put forth as possibilities. See Stanley Wells, ed., Shakespeare found! (2009, rev. 2011) and reviews of same in Shakespeare quarterly (60:4, pp. 483-487; 62:2, pp. 281-284).
Inscribed in upper left-hand corner: "Aete 46 / 1610." (The two small letters "te" have been misread as "fe," which would mean the painter AE made this work. However, "e" is an abbreviation for "is," and the word represented is "Aetatis." The inscription is executed in oil paint over the dark brown overpaint covering the background. Give the style and costume, the date 1610 may well be correct)
Condition: the panel consists of a single oak plank, apparently cut radially from the tree. At some point prior to 1770 the hairline was raised. The ground is a thin cream-colored gesso. There are two severe vertical cracks. One runs from top to bottom on the right-hand side, passing the sitter's ear and curving gently at the bottom where it borders the sitter's left wing. The second crack is down the middle of the panel passing to the left of the figure's left eye. These cracks were visible early on, as they are commented on by both Boaden in 1824 (p. 194) and Wivell in 1827 (pp. 108-09, n.). There is a third crack that starts at the top, 6 1/2 inches from the left edge, and ends near the right eye. The cradling consists of five vertical battens of irregular widths and spacing and five horizontal battens. Spielmann described it in 1909 as "on panel, very roughly hewn at the back and held together by three strengthening uprights-not a recent addition-and strips of canvas glued against the two cracks" (p. 232)
Versions: Spielmann lists the chief "copies" as the "Buckston" or "Duke of Kingston," which he believes to be early 18th century; the "Croker"; the "Staunton" (see no. 161); the "Duke of Anhalt," which is stated as having been executed in England in 1763-64; the "Earl of Darnley"; and the "Marsden."
Publications about material
Engravings: Mezzotint by Richard Earlom as frontispiece to Charles Jennen's 1770 edition of 'King Lear,' 5 7/8 x 4 1/2 in.; oval engraving by Gardner for the 'Literary Magazine,' 1 June 1793 (reversed); mezzotint by R. Dunkarton, published by S. Woodburn, 1811, for 'Characters Illustrious in British History'; mezzotint for Boaden by Charles Turner, 1 January 1894; engraving by T. Garner, published by John Bumpus, 1824; mezzotint after Earlom by Robert Cooper as frontispiece to 1825 edition of 'The Works of William Shakespeare'; engraving after Dunkarton by Robert Cooper for John Bumpus's 1825 edition of Shakespeare; poster advertising the 1825 "London stage Edition" of 'The Works of William Shakespeare'; oval engraving after Cooper's mezzotint by J. Pass for the 'Encyclopedia Londinensis' of 1827; engraving after Earlom by T. Wright for Wivell's 'Inquiry' of 1827; engraving by James Hopwood, Jr., for the 1842 edition of Shakespeare for Baudry's European Library (Pressly Catalogue, p. 293).
Provenance
Provenance: Acquired by Charles Jennens of Gopsel, Leicestershire, by 1770; by descent on Jennens's death in 1773 to Penn Assheton Curzon, who had married Jennens's niece; by descent to Lord Howe, Curzon's successor?; purchased by Samuel Woodburn, a picture dealer, for the ninth duke of Hamilton, ca. 1809; at the duke's death in 1819 passed to his daughter, the wife of the eleventh duke of Somerset; by descent to the twelfth duke of Somerset in 1855; by descent to his daughter, Lady Guendolen Ramsden of Bulstrode, Gerrard's Cross, in 1885; by descent to Sir John Ramsden; his sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, Auctioneers, 8 King St., St. James's Square, London, 27-30 May 1932, lot 65.
Source of acquisition
Bought from Sawyer, July 1932, £226.9.0.
Exhibited
Exhibited: Mead Art Building, Amherst College, "Shakespeare, Hamlet, and Macbeth" (no catalogue), 1951; "As imagination bodies forth...," Folger Shakespeare Library, Oct. 28, 1994-Feb. 15, 1994; "Searching for Shakespeare," National Portrait Gallery, London, March 2-May 9, 2006, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, June 24-Sept. 27, 2006.
Cited/described in
Pressly, W.L. Paintings in the Folger Shakespeare Library, 160 (Plate 24)
Linked resources
Digital image(s) of Folger Shakespeare Library FPs17
Genre/form
Portrait paintings.
Place of creation/publication
Great Britain -- England.
Item Details
Call number
FPs17
Folger accession
3155