humanities.lit.authors.shakespeare

(quote)

The only known portrait of Sussex Jacobean playwright John Fletcher
painted during his lifetime has been saved for the nation following a
public appeal.

The National Portrait Gallery paid =A3218,000 to the 7th Earl of
Clarendon for the painting of the poet and playwright, whose fame
rivalled Shakespeare's in his day.

The painting, which has rarely been on public display, now completes
the Gallery's collection of portraits of 16th and 17th century
writers, which features images of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson and John
Donne.

As well as writing his own plays, the dramatist, who was born in Rye
in 1579 and died of the plague in 1625, collaborated with Shakespeare
on Cardenio, which has been lost, The Famous History of the Life of
King Henry VIII, and The Two Noble Kinsmen.

The artist behind the portrait,
which is larger and more ostentatious than portraits of Jonson and
Shakespeare,
who came from humbler backgrounds, is not identified.

It shows Fletcher as a prosperous and well-dressed man with the tools
of his
trade, paper and pens.

Donations to the Gallery's appeal included =A350,000 from The Art Fund
and =A32,700 raised from a raffle at the Sussex property where Fletcher,
a vicar's son, was born.

Catharine MacLeod, curator of 17th century portraits at the gallery
said: "The National Portrait Gallery's group of portraits of
Elizabethan and Jacobean writers is one of the most significant and
famous parts of the collection.

"John Fletcher was Shakespeare's collaborator and one of the most
popular playwrights of his day, and this portrait will enable us to
fill in an important gap in the story that we are currently able to
tell about literature in this period."

Gallery director Sandy Nairne said: "I am grateful to The Art Fund and
all those who have supported this appeal - John Fletcher is a very
worthy acquisition."

http://www.crawleyobserver.co.uk/latest-south-east-news/Portrait-of-Shakespe=
are-collaborator-saved.3750666.jp