…this post is dedicated to my brilliant friend – and mentor on ‘all’ things Brontë, the one and only, indefatigable, Christopher Heywood. If he was a cloud – I think he’d be Cirrostratus; a cloud type so high up in the sky that it is composed of ice crystals – that form beautiful arcs of light around the Sun and Moon – as well as the ‘lost’ portrait of Emily Brontë…  

Whenever our research on the ‘Lost’ portrait of Emily Brontë gets rejected——even ignored, I go back while going forward to search for clues again – because the simple fact is – it has NEVER BEEN PROVEN that the ‘Bonnet Portrait’ photogravure reproduction of Emily Brontë by Charlotte – that appeared in the ‘Woman at Home’ in 1894 and ‘The Bookman’ in 1896 – is not an authentic portrait type; that’s because it IS authentic.  

When the ‘Bonnet Portrait’ reproduction appeared in the 1890’s – it was dismissed as an “entirely spurious” portrait by literary critic, Clement Shorter, on the ‘evidence’ that there was no original to hand! 

More than a century on, Shorter’s seemingly eternal damnation of the ‘Bonnet Portrait’ prevails – and persists parrot-fashion——even though the ‘parrots’ do no fresh research to substantiate Shorter’s long out-of-date statement. No, they just quote Ole Shorter back at ‘us’ – ‘us’ that HAVE done our research! It’s the injustice of the situation——as well as ‘the picture’ – that keeps me gleaning for Truth and Light; and because I’m a Libran! 

Every once in a while – I return to my well-thumbed copy of ‘The art of the Brontës’ – in the hope I might find something I’ve previously missed, especially as I have a tendency to scan and not read! 

The ‘Bonnet Portrait’ as it appears in ‘The Woman at Home’ – isn’t listed in the ‘The art of the Brontës’ you understand – not even in Charlotte’s ‘Dubious Attributions’ section – BECAUSE it is a reproduction FROM an ‘unknown’ original; unknown as in the date of publication in 1995.  

‘No matter’ that the above attribution to Charlotte carries no weight——or that the editor of the ‘Woman at Home’ and ‘The Bookman’ – was one William Robertson Nicoll – who saw the ‘lost’ portrait of Emily by Charlotte – at Haworth in 1879.

Hence back to ‘cloudbusting’ – and No.38 in the ‘The art of the Brontës’; a watercolour by Charlotte Brontë – entitled ‘Woman with Lyre’.

No.38 is a meticulous copy by Charlotte of an engraving from the title page of the ‘Forget-Me-Not’ Annual for 1831. Charlotte’s only alteration from the original is that the figure and the pillar in her drawing aren’t supported on a cloud. ‘The art of the Brontës’ goes on to reveal that the Brontë household most likely owned a copy of the 1831 edition of the ‘Forget-Me-Not’ annual because Charlotte made three other copies of engravings from the 1831 annual – as did Branwell and Emily, making six copies in all. In other words the ‘Forget-Me-Not’ annual for 1831 – was a well-thumbed edition in the Brontë household – especially by Charlotte who made four copies – listed as 38,39,40,41 in ‘The art of the Brontës’.

“Charlotte appears to have made her copies from this little Annual as soon as it appeared late in 1830, in time for the Christmas market as a year book for 1831.” from “The art of the Brontës” by Christine Alexander and Jane Sellars.

The reason I suddenly got clued-in to the ‘cloud’ word, is because the miniature ‘Bonnet Portrait’ depicts Emily on a ‘cushion’ of silvery-grey cumulus, that’s very much after the engraving in the ‘Forget-Me-Not’ annual. I can instantly reference an image of the engraving online – whereas poor old Clem Shorter had no such wizardry at his fingertips. So it’s not all his fault – that the ‘Bonnet Portrait’ has languished in a state of non-recognition for more than a century, which in turn has enabled three original artworks by Charlotte to slip through the auction house net – including at Sotheby’s in 1933… Although the pencil version was catalogued as an “original drawing of Emily Brontë by her sister Charlotte” – Lot 115 only realised a low hammer price. No wonder! By 1933 the damage was done; who’d have wanted to buy a so-called fake portrait? but someone did.

Charlotte’s copy of the ‘Forget-Me-Not’ engraving, shows a “Woman in Greco-Roman dress, leaning against a small pillar with a lyre resting on top”

I have an inkling that the “Woman in Greco-Roman dress” as described in ‘The art of the Brontës” – has a name, ‘Erato’; she is one of the nine Muses in Greek Mythology – who is often depicted holding a Lyre – she was the ‘Muse of Lyric and Love Poetry’.

How right then, that the engraving of Erato in the ‘Forget-Me-Not’ annual (left) – probably inspired Charlotte to give Emily her own cloud (centre). Meanwhile, Charlotte’s otherwise meticulous copy of the ‘Forget-Me-Not’ title page – depicts Erato on a small patch of Terra firma (right)… 

Intuition tells me, Charlotte saved ‘her’ cloud-shaped idea for painting her first portrait of Emily——one of a series of three. Note too – that the chosen colour for the head-scarf is ‘Forget-Me-Not’ blue.

Emily’s blue head-scarf is notably different in shade from the white, patterned head-scarf seen in these other versions:

• The photogravure reproduction of the ‘Bonnet Portrait’.
• The ‘Bonnet Portrait’ attributed to John Hunter Thompson. 
• The ‘Bonnet Portrait’ by Charlotte Brontë.

…and the red conté crayon version in the Brontë Parsonage Museum collection, that’s listed as No:69 in the catalogue of the Bonnell Collection, 1932. 

This strongly suggests to me that the tiniest, weeniest ‘Bonnet portrait’ is the original ‘Bonnet’ version, painted from life – inspired by the engraving on the title page of the ‘Forget-Me-Not’ annual for 1831.

One of Charlotte’s two small portraits of Anne Brontë – is dated c.1833 – so I would date the ‘Bonnet miniature’ to around the same year. The miniatures are stylistically similar too; and share identical, minute details such as the ‘Lacrimal caruncle’ in the corners of their eyes…

And where Charlotte has demurely depicted Anne in a blue and white dress with a pretty lace trim around her collar – Emily is dressed and ready for the Great Outdoors; the West Yorkshire Moors around Haworth being Emily’s ‘Heaven on Earth’. She has a thick cloak wrapped around her shoulders and a simple straw hat – tied beneath her chin with a head-scarf; so technically not a fancy ‘Bonnet’ at all. Straw Hats have been de rigueur in the countryside since the 1800’s at least! So nothing odd about Emily’s style of headgear for the early 1900’s.

Thinking about the significance of the blue head-scarf again, ‘Forget-Me-Not’ would be a fitting title – for a portrait that’s been ‘lost’ for one-hundred-and-forty years. In the Victorian Language of Flowers – ‘Forget-Me-Nots’ symbolised love and remembrance. 

The ‘fact’ that Charlotte made three versions of the same ‘portrait type’ reveals just how much she revered and idolised Emily; she didn’t just put her genius sister on a pedestal – she put her on a cloud.

I’m thinking – if only ‘Shorter’s supporters’ could try some ‘cloud-shaped’ thinking…