Pencil sketch by Charlotte Brontë, which new research reveals is a self-portrait alongside George Richmond’s portrait. Composite: Pierpont Morgan Library/Getty Images
Experts say author made drawing, sketched on her school atlas, years before writing Jane Eyre in which protagonist draws herself in similar fashion.
A sketch of a woman’s head by Charlotte Brontë, previously thought to be of another pupil drawn while the author was at boarding school in Brussels, has been identified as a self-portrait.
The literary biographer Claire Harman said the drawing, which she suggests shows Brontë looking into a mirror, preceded the novel Jane Eyre, in which the protagonist also draws herself in a similar fashion.
The sketch dates from 1843, four years before Brontë published Jane Eyre, one of English literature’s great masterpieces, and when the young writer was suffering the agonies and insecurities of unrequited love.
The drawing was known to be by Brontë, not least because it was sketched on her school atlas.
Harman’s discovery is “massively significant” as there are only two other known lifetime portraits of Brontë.
Despite the sketch’s small size – barely 1.5 inches high – its facial details resemble those in an 1850 image by George Richmond, now in the National Portrait Gallery, although the artist was known to flatter his sitters. Read more: theguardian/charlotte-bronte-sketch-identified-self-portrait
Ann Dinsdale, collections manager of the Brontë Parsonage Museum, Haworth, says that it is hard to prove the identity conclusively, but the sketch 'does certainly resemble the sitter in the Richmond portrait' dailymail./New-self-portrait-Charlotte-Bronte-discovered-drew-looking-mirror-just-like-great-heroine-Jane-Eyre
Hello Geri! This is an wonderful discovery...I always think of the little sketch Charlotte did of herself, Ellen, and a man in which Charlotte portrayed herself as an ugly, little girl compared to Ellen as a tall and graceful beauty...do you know which one I'm referring to? I think it sketched in a letter to Ellen, though I'm not sure. It has always made me sad that this is how she saw herself. In this little sketch, she does herself more justice...and it's amazing how similar it is to the Richmond portrait...such a lovely find! xo J~
BeantwoordenVerwijderenDear 24, I was thinking of that one too. It was in a1843 letter to Ellen during Mr. Vincent question, so it is from the same time as this new one and it looks like this discovered one. That one is even labeled" Charlotte".
BeantwoordenVerwijderenOne of Mary Taylor's complaints about the Richmond portrait was that the features were not closer together. In this new to us drawing, we see they are indeed closer. It also reminds me of Anne's look in the column portrait...Sharp features of the Brontes, while Emily seems to favor the more rounded Branwells