Charlotte Brontë
Charlotte Brontë (1816 – 1855) was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters whose novels became classics of English literature. Charlotte is most famous for her novel Jane Eyre. I greatly enjoyed learning about Charlotte and her strong personality through my research into her looks. She was said to be less than five feet tall with indiscriminate yet enchanting eyes. She was strong-minded, clever, shy (but ready to argue her beliefs), and apparently hated teaching young children. I struggled a bit with which portrait to use here. I found a great source about her looks that talks about the confirmed images we have of her. I’ve used this painting by her brother Branwell as my main reference, but pulled in some visual references from others as well. Only three undisputed images of Charlotte exist - this painting by Branwell is one of them and was painted when she was probably 18 years old. It is generally considered an “unflattered” portrait - meaning it doesn’t try to beautify her and the skill of the painter is questionable. The other is a chalk drawing from later in her life by George Richmond, but this is considered to be overly flattering. The third is a possible photo of Charlotte, although this is unconfirmed. The face shape looks correct, but the eyes look far too blue to be her based on other accounts. What do you think?If you’d like to support my work and help me keep doing what I do, please consider purchasing a print from the Etsy store or supporting me on Patreon (link in bio) where you can see posts over a week early and vote on who you’d like to be next! Bookmarks of this will be listed & available later this week.Sources: https://brontesisters.co.uk/Charlotte-Bronte.htmlPortraits: Left - Branwell Bronte’s portrait of the family, National Portrait Gallery (Public Domain of the United States) Date Unknown. Right base: iStock Photo.Charlotte Bronte - What did she look like?