Famous portrait 'not Shakespeare'?

has revealed. The Grafton Portrait has been used on the covers of many books on the Bard. However, nine months of research and restoration work have failed to reveal any evidence to support the view that it is a portrait of Shakespeare.

The gallery said it dates back to 1588 when Shakespeare was 24, but at that stage he was unlikely to have been able to afford the style of dress seen. Gallery experts said at that age he was about to join a travelling theatre troupe and had just become a father to twins.

The Grafton Portrait was painted in oils by an anonymous artist and shows a youth with curly brown hair and grey eyes, and dressed in a sumptuous silk or satin scarlet jacket worn by European men between the 15th and 17th centuries.

The inscription on the top of the painting records the age of 24 and the date as 1588, which would make the sitter the same age as Shakespeare.

Dr Tarnya Cooper, 16th Century curator at the National Portrait Gallery, said: "We believe that Shakespeare left Stratford-upon-Avon following the birth of twins in 1585.

"One possibility is that he joined a travelling theatre troupe and it is very unlikely that in 1588, Shakespeare would have been able to afford a costume of this type."

Source: BBC Online