When I say that Portraits of Shakespeare is the definitive history of visual depictions of William Shakespeare, it should not be taken as too high praise: There are only three images of the man that are likely contemporaneous with him. But Katherine Duncan-Jones, emerita fellow at Somerville College, Oxford, here provides the historical background for each of the three images in forensic levels of detail and offers a compelling original thesis about the authorship of one of the three images. She also gives her appraisal of the images’ artistic merits and what they tell us about Shakespeare.

The images that historians are confident were created during (or near) Shakespeare’s lifetime have been viewed by his admirers with great disappointment. Two are technically amateurish, and they do not give the viewer much insight into Shakespeare’s personality or life. Only one, the so-called Chandos portrait, seems to do justice to the greatest playwright of all time.