A new image of Shakespeare

"We all know what William Shakespeare looked like: similar to a hippie uncle — balding, moustached, longish hair in back. How do we know? Mostly from an engraving by Martin Droeshout that appeared with the First Folio, the collection of Shakespeare's work that was published in 1623, seven years after his death. That engraving is reproduced with almost every edition of Shakespeare that offers a picture of him.

But engravings are typically copied from another source, like a drawing or painting. Shakespeareans have been tantalized for generations by the possibility that a genuine life portrait of the man survives somewhere.

Now Stanley Wells, professor emeritus of Shakespeare Studies at Birmingham University and one of the world's most distinguished Shakespeare scholars, says he has identified one. Wells is convinced that an oil painting on wood panel that has rested for centuries in the collection of an old Irish family was painted from life around 1610, when Shakespeare was 46.

If that's so, it would be the only true likeness we have of the greatest writer of the English language."
http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1883770,00.html?imw=Y

Shakespeare books on display
O Brave new world : two centuries of Shakespeare on the Australian stage
Players : the mysterious identity of William Shakespeare
The Shakespeare handbook
Shakespeare : his life, work and era
Shakespeare in the movies : from the silent era to Shakespeare in love
Shakespeare : the biography
Shakespeare's professional career
A theater of envy : William Shakespeare
A theatergoer's guide to Shakespeare's characters
Ungentle Shakespeare : scenes from his life
Will in the world : how Shakespeare became Shakespeare