National Portrait Gallery There are two official portraits of the Bronte Sisters. Both painted by their brother Branwell Brontë (His own image in the picture has been painted out). This is an actual photograph of 'The Gun-Group' portrait - an oil painting produced by Branwell around 1833/34. The photograph is now in extremely poor condition. The subjects are, from left to right: Anne, Charlotte, Branwell and Emily. Shortly after Patrick Brontë's death in 1861, Charlotte's husband, Arthur Bell Nicholls (pictured on right), took the painting back with him to his home town of Banaghar, in southern Ireland. He tore off the section showing Emily and destroyed the remainder believing the likenesses of the other three to be so poor. The original 'Emily' section is now on display in the National Portrait Gallery, London. Mary Taylor discribes Charlotte when she arrived at Roe Head: I first saw her coming out of a coverd cast,in very old-fashioned clothes, looking very cold and miserable She looked a little, old woman. Ellen Nussey: She never seemed to me the unattractivelittle person others designated her, but certainly she was at that tme anything but pretty, even her good points were lost. Her naturally beautiful hair of soft sily browb being then dry and frizzy-looking, screwed up in tight little curls. Ellen Nussey July 1833, her first stay at the Parsonage: Emily was the tallest person in the house, except her father. Her hair, which was naturally as beautiful as Charlotte's, was in the same unbecoming tight curl and frizz, and there was the same want of complexion. She had very beautiful eyes – kind, kindling, liquid eyes; but she did not often look at you; she was too reserved. Their colour might be said to be dark grey, at other times dark blue, they varied so. She talked very little. She and Anne were like twins – inseparable companions, and in the very closest sympathy, which never had any interruption. Anne, dear gentle Anne, was quite different in appearance to the others. She was her Aunt’s favourite. Her hair was a very pretty light brown and in falling curls fell on her neck in graceful curls. She had lovely violet blue eyes, fine pencilled eye-brows, a clear, almost transparent complexion." Juliet Barker: Anne's hair was actually darker then Ellen remebered: a little plait, cut off and cerefully preserved by Patrick on 22-05-1833 suggests that it had deepened to a rich brown with a hint of auburn, though it remained fairer than her sisters. http://bjtanke.com/BRONTE/pagex.htm Victorian society was of no interest to Emily. Having taken a fancy to the romantic, gigot sleeves of the 1830s- she wore them long after they’d gone out of style. On the other hand, she had no use for false embellishment. While attending Madame Heger’s school in Brussels, she was teased by the fashionable girls for not wearing a corset. Fellow pupil, Laetitia Wheelwright, recollected that Emily always answered their jokes with, “I wish to be as God made me.” Charlotte Bronte made these portraits of Anne: George Smith: Charlotte’s friend and publisher: 'I must confess that my first impression of Charlotte Brontë’s personal appearance was that it was interesting rather than attractive. She was very small, and had a quaint old-fashioned look. Her head seemed too large for her body. She had fine eyes, but her face was marred by the shape of the mouth and by the complexion. There was but little feminine charm about her; and of this fact she herself was uneasily and perpetually conscious. It may seem strange that the possession of genius did not lift her above the weakness of an excessive anxiety about her personal appearance. But I believe that she would have given all her genius and her fame to have been beautiful. Perhaps few women ever existed more anxious to be pretty than she, or more angrily conscious of the circumstance that she was not pretty.' On the website of the National Portrait Gallery I found these portraits: Charlotte Brontë (Mrs A.B. Nicholls) by George Richmond chalk, 1850 23 5/8 in. x 18 3/4 in. (600 mm x 476 mm) Bequeathed by the sitter's husband, Rev A.B. Nicholls, 1906 Artist George Richmond (1809-1896), Portrait painter and draughtsman; son of Thomas Richmond. Artist associated with 320 portraits, Sitter in 13 portraits. Brontë's publisher, George Smith, commissioned this portrait of the novelist from Richmond as a gift for her father, who saw in it 'strong indications of the genius of the author'. Elizabeth Gaskell recalled seeing the portrait hung in the parlour of the Haworth parsonage, and a copy of it appeared in her biography. Juliet Barker: Richmond captered the beauty of her large hazel eyes and played the size of her prominent nose and mouth. --------------------------------------- It was during this visit in the summer of 1850 that the Smiths persuaded Charlotte Bronte to sit to George Richmond for a portrait, and she agreed, as the drawing was to be framed and presented to her father, and Ellen Nussey had also wished for a portrait of her friend. Richmond found Charlotte Bronte by no means a good subject; it is well known that he was keen about having a good picture as well as a faithful likeness. Richmond found Charlotte Bronte very depressed, and after she had given him two sittings he lost hope. It was her melancholy expression, as well as her irregular features that troubled him. On her third visit, the Duke of Wellington's servant was just leaving the studio as she entered, which caused Richmond to say in welcoming her, " If you had been here a quarter of an hour sooner, you would have seen the Duke of Wellington." Whereupon she broke out into eager talking about the Duke, and the artist caught the wistful expression given in her portrait. When Richmond was getting on well with the drawing, Charlotte Bronte stood behind him, looking at it, he heard a sob, and on turning round she said to him, " Excuse me it is so like my sister Emily." When the drawing was finished, Mr. George Smith says in his paper, " In the Early Forties," " She burst into tears, and said it was so like her sister Anne, who had died the year before." The fact was, there was a family likeness between the three sisters, but Charlotte was not so good-looking as Emily and Anne. Mrs. Gaskell considered the drawing an excellent likeness, as did others who knew her in 1850. Mr. Smith sent the drawing, and also a framed portrait of the Duke of Wellington as a present for Mr. Bronte, whom, as an Irishman, he greatly admired. This portrait of Charlotte Bronte I never saw before. Unknown woman, formerly known as Charlotte Brontë (Mrs A.B. Nicholls) by Unknown artist watercolour, 1850 urchased, 1906 for more information about this portrait read this Thackeray’s daughter, the writer Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie recalled a visit to her father by Charlotte Brontë: …two gentlemen come in, leading a tiny, delicate, serious, little lady, with fair straight hair, and steady eyes. She may be a little over thirty; she is dressed in a little barège dress with a pattern of faint green moss. Barège dress = (a lightweight fabric woven of silk or cotton and wool) --------------------------------- A lot of discussion is going on about this portrait of Landseer. Read more on these weblogs: Landseer could have travelled through the Brontes' home town of Haworth whilst visiting his friend John Nussey at Bolton Hall in Yorkshire. Nussey was the also brother of Charlotte Bronte's friend Ellen. http://abigailsateliers.wordpress.com/2011/04/17/the-new-bronte-portrait/ http://soeursbronte.wordpress.com/2011/02/17/les-bronte-par-edwin-landseer-un-portrait-controverse/ http://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/new-bronte-portrait.html http://bookstains.wordpress.com/2011/03/16/did-the-real-charlotte-bronte-just-stand-up-the-debate/ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/bradford/8196844.stm Funny information on these weblogs http://soeursbronte.wordpress.com/2011/03/10/a-la-recherche-des-soeurs-bronte-2/ http://bjtanke.com/BRONTE/ http://bjtanke.com/BRONTE/page%209.htm Ruring a visit to London Charlotte visit the Royal Academie and is looking to a painting of Landseer. This is the only official occasion that the Bronte name is connected with Landseer. I am going on in my search for more information about the Richmond and Landseer portraits and Charlotte's photo's. A photograph believed to be that of Charlotte Brontë taken in the last year of her life in 1854. Courtesy Brontë Parsonage Museum Artist not known Brontë Parsonage Museum circa 1839 A head and shoulders portrait of Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855) showing her wearing a bonnet. It is possible that this is the portrait Charlotte writes about while on her second visit to Brussels in 1843. This would suggest the artist is Mary Dixon. Medium: ink, crayon, chalk & wash Dimensions: diameter: 15.5cm Vendor: Sotheby's Provenance Martha Brown (a servant in the Bronte household), 1855; William Law; Sotheby's, 2004. Recently restored chalk drawing of Charlotte Bronte which was purchased at Sotherbys in 2004 and carefully restored to its former glory by experts. When I see these portraits I wonder Why did Charlotte think she is ugly? This is the latest discussed portrait I have a problem with the hat of ""Emily"" I think it is of a later period But sure this portrait shows the kind of wild and imagenary beauty I imagine the sisters could have More info on brontesisters

Charlotte, Emily, or Anne?

This is a follow up to my post called ‘Will the Real Charlotte Bronte Please Stand up? ‘ This was written a while ago. I tried to establish what Charlotte Bronte really looked like (an…

Underdog: The Other, Other Bronte – The Dorfman Theatre ★★★☆☆

The parsonage where Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte lived and died Since I was a very young girl, and read Jane Eyre as a missionary kid in Beirut, Lebanon, I've been in love with the Brontes. This cover of Jane Eyre is actually a portrait of Charlotte Bronte Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte (along with their younger brother Branwell, who never achieved the success his sisters did), lived a quiet, uneventful, isolated life with their clergyman father in a parsonage in Haworth, England. Never having experienced much of life outside the parsonage, it's always been a mystery to Bronte-lovers how they could have come up with so much drama, pathos and passion in their writings. (By passion, I mean raw emotion. Their books stay within most of the rigors of their Victorian era, although they were often criticized at the time for having too much feeling, or not the "right kind" of feeling.) Interesting, the sisters initially submitted their books under male pseudonyms: Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. Who knows if the books would have ever reached publication if they hadn't done so? Jane Eyre is the grandmother of all Gothic romances. A reader can't help but be drawn into Jane's world and feel her raw emotion in every page. And, big spoiler for you here, but a happy ending. A happy, albeit less than fairy-tale, ending. There's no question about it, Jane Eyre is my favorite novel of all time. After reading Jane Eyre, of course I had to read Wuthering Heights, written by Charlotte Bronte's sister Emily Bronte. If critics of their era didn't like Charlotte's emotion and passion, they were in for an even bigger jolt with Emily's. This from Wikipedia: Early reviews of Wuthering Heights were mixed in their assessment. Whilst most critics recognised the power and imagination of the novel, many found the story unlikeable and ambiguous...H. F. Chorley of the Athenaeum said that it was a "disagreeable story" and that the 'Bells' (Brontës) "seem to affect painful and exceptional subjects". The Atlas review called it a "strange, inartistic story", but commented that every chapter seems to contain a "sort of rugged power". It supported the second point made in the Athenaeum, suggesting that the general effect of the novel was "inexpressibly painful", but adding that all of its subjects were either "utterly hateful or thoroughly contemptible". Wuthering Heights is one of the most intense novels ever. The central characters, Heathcliff and Catherine, really are not very likable, especially Heathcliff. And yet the reader is compellingly drawn into their intense love for each other. Heathcliff is the prototype of the bad boy that nevertheless holds an attraction. As a young girl, I had a bit of a crush on Heathcliff--interestingly though, having recently re-read the book as an adult and knowing more about abusive men, I think he's pretty awful. Wuthering Heights IS a great read, though...one of the greatest ever, so I recommend it to any fiction lover. I think I've only read one book by Anne Bronte--The Tenant of Wildfell Hall--and although she will forever take lesser billing than her sisters as a writer, I did enjoy the book. Villette is my second favorite Charlotte Bronte book. Although it doesn't measure up to Jane Eyre (for me, anyway), it's still a terrific read that I've gone back to several times. I've read several biographies of Charlotte Bronte and the Brontes as a family, but one of the most fascinating is Daphne DuMaurier's The Infernal World of Branwell Bronte. Besides chronicling the life of a brilliant young man whose genius and promise were eradicated by alcoholism and drug addiction, the book provides compelling insight into the family life of these extraordinarily gifted siblings. Above, the room in the Bronte parsonage where the sisters did their writing. This from an excellent blog called The Brontes: This is the room in Haworth Parsonage, variously known as the dining room, the drawing room or the parlour, in which the Brontë sisters used to write and discuss their work with each other. When the novelist Elizabeth Gaskell, Charlotte’s friend and future biographer, first visited in September 1853, she was struck by its exquisite cleanliness and neatness. In contrast to the “bleak cold colours” of the Yorkshire moors outside, “the room looked the perfection of warmth, snugness and comfort, crimson predominating in the furniture”. If you haven't yet discovered the Brontes, and you are a lover of fiction, I heartily recommend them to you. If you are a Bronte fan, which book is your favorite, and why? Let me know in my comments section! Image credits: All images in this post are re-blogged from The Brontes, a must-see site if you're a Bronte fan.

Charlotte Brontë's wrote novels and poems that found great success in her lifetime and are still popular nearly 200 years later.

Branwell was the only brother of the famous Brontë sisters. As the sole heir, the family had great hopes for his success. Unfortunately he failed at everything he tried, including his relationship with an older, married woman named Mrs. Robinson. His decadent lifestyle, which included drug and alcohol abuse, is depicted by the staging of his room in the parsonage.

This item is one blank greeting card with envelope.

A short biography of the Victorian writer, Charlotte Bronte who explored the dehumanization of poverty and the difficulties faced by women of the 19th century in her famous novel Jane Eyre.

Charlotte's (pictured) 19 page book, is expected to reach in the region of £300,000 when it goes under the hammer at Sotheby’s auction house on December 15.

The only other known group portrait of the famed literary sisters is in the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Old (old old) story discovered in Belgian museum; published by the London Review of Books

Collector Seamus Molloy believes he has bought the only photo of famous authors Charlotte, Anne and Emily Bronte in the entire world after he noticed the picture looked like a painting of the trio.

Emily Bronte is a distinguished figure of the English literature. The only novel of Emily Bronte is considered to be a masterpiece.

It's no secret that the Brontë sisters were inspired by their surroundings, but was it their hometown of Haworth that inspired them or the nearby moors?

Beulah Maud Devaney: Charlotte and Emily Brontë gave us romanticised, byronic heroes, but Anne refused to wear rose-tinted glasses when dealing with male alcoholism and brutality

WUTHERING Heights is a novel we all know (and some may even love) from our English Literature GCSE. Here’s everything you need to know about Emily Brontë… Who was Emily Brontë? Born in …

If You Like, Then Read is a feature where we offer book suggestions based on titles you already like. This week we are showcasing books recommended for fans of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. …

Charlotte Bronte, born in 1816, was one of three sisters who became famous novelists. Her best known work is Jane Eyre, originally published under the pen-name Currer Bell. Charlotte Bronte at work on her famous novel, Jane Eyre Born in Thornton, Yorkshire, she was educated at the Clergy Daughters’ School at Cowan Bridge, Lancashire, which […]

Charlotte, Emily, or Anne?

So much of the Brontës’ lives remains shrouded in mystery despite the popularity of their works. We probably know more about Charlotte and Branwell, and their characters, than the rest of the…

Here are 10 poems by Emily Brontë, including No Coward Soul is Mine. Her poetry is considered the most moving of the Brontë sisters.

The literary sisters and their brother suffered their share of heartbeaks.

The Professor is the last book published, posthumously, by Charlotte Bronte. It is also ironically her first novel which was consistently rejected by publishers during Bronte’s lifetime even …

The only other known group portrait of the famed literary sisters is in the National Portrait Gallery in London.