Sisters doin’ it for themselves with a little help from me! 

A blogpost about the fortunes of two pencil portraits by Charlotte Brontë of her sisters, Emily and Anne; one portrait (above right) is idolized by The Brontë Establishment and fans alike —— the other (above left) is ostracized.

In 1879, Sir William Robertson Nicoll saw two pencil portraits drawn by Charlotte Brontë —— of her two sisters, Emily and Anne. At the time, both portraits belonged to Martha Brown —— former housekeeper and loyal servant to the Brontës; Nicoll was visiting Martha at her home in Haworth.

William Robertson Nicoll’s account is repeated under ‘APPENDIX 1’ in ‘Under The Bay Tree’ published in 1934 —— eleven years after his death. ‘Under The Bay Tree’ is a unique record of the Robertson Nicoll’s successful married life together between 1897 – 1923 —— written by Sir William Robertson Nicoll’s wife, Lady Catherine.  

These are Sir William Robertson Nicoll’s own words about the two pencil portraits. . .

If one reads on after the second red highlight, Sir William goes on to recount how he was able to buy the pencil drawing of Anne after Martha’s death in 1880. But alas, the ‘lost’ portrait of Emily eluded him all his days thereafter. 

And this is the portrait of Anne by Charlotte that Sir William bought from Martha’s sisters —— now in the Brontë Parsonage Museum Collection in Haworth:

Until a few days ago, the only image I had to hand of Charlotte’s pencil drawing of Anne is the small b/w image on the left, reproduced in ‘The Art of The Brontes’ —— authors Christine Alexander and Jane Sellars. The much bigger, clearer image on the right (“Plate 21”) is reproduced in ‘Sixty Treasures’ —— published by The Bronte Society in 1988.   

A new pre-loved acquisition to help fortify my modest research library!

That said, I find one can read as much Brontë literature as one likes —— but when it comes down to really understanding ‘The Art of the Brontës’ (their actual Art not the book, as in the so-called ‘catalogue raisonne’) one has to learn to read between Charlotte’s lines! Of course it helps immensely if one has an original drawing to hand.

Provenance in ‘Sixty Treasures’ published by The Bronte Society in 1988 —— detailing Charlotte’s pencil drawing of Anne.

And  Lady Catherine Robertson Nicoll had her own unique reminiscences of being a former keeper of Charlotte’s portrait of Anne. . .

From ‘Under The Bay Tree’ published in 1934 “For private circulation only” 

A certain stylistic trait that immediately struck me about the bigger, ‘Sixty Treasures’ picture of Charlotte’s pencil drawing of Anne —— is that the sitter’s name ‘Anne’ is obliquely written in her hair. . .

In the name of Brontë research —— a slightly rotated image (borrowed from ‘Sixty Treasures’) —— of Charlotte’s pencil drawing of Anne in the Brontë Parsonsage Museum collection in Haworth.

As a further research-based exercise to expose “Anne” —— I have edited the areas around Charlotte’s ‘hidden’ stylistic trait. It becomes evidently clear that Anne’s shoulder-length hair has been deliberately coiffured by Charlotte to fall around her sister’s face in curls that integrally identify her as “Anne”. 

Charlotte has deployed upper and lowercase lettering in order to make detection much less obvious —— and it’s worked brilliantly until NOW!!! This is truly groundbreaking research albeit homespun and makeshift due to the total lack of interest in Charlotte’s sister portrait cryptically titled “E-M-I-L-Y” —— from the National Portrait Gallery, The Brontë Parsonage Museum and the BBC’s [Fake or Fortune?] ——all of whom I have contacted several times over about the true ‘lost’ portrait of Emily Brontë —— right: 

In the exact same stylistic manner that “Anne” has been carefully coiffured —— so too Charlotte has cleverly woven “E-M-I-L-Y” into the drapery as well as “E B” in the hair. . .

Charlotte went to town on “E-M-I-L-Y” but still the powers-that-be choose to ignore the lot!

All the while Charlotte’s initals ‘C B’ float airily at the end of a loose curl. . .

I have included a pinhead to simply illustrate the smallness of Charlotte Bronte’s initials; on the original her initials are tiny but are much sharper —— as in they are clearly delineated.

When taken out of context, ‘M’ in E-M-I-L-Y is an example of how Charlotte’s cryptic pencil lines shapeshift back into three folds in the drapery…

But when viewed as part of the whole the folds shapeshift from left to right to become ‘E-M-I-L-Y’. And it’s the same with the coiffured letter shapes in Anne’s hair; once perceived one can’t unsee them. 

Charlotte’s ingeniious name game has outsmarted all the eyes of all the beholders of Anne’s pencil portrait —— including those of it’s former owner Sir William Robertson Nicoll —— and Lady Catherine —— and about five generations of Brontë Society curators and members —— but not ME!

Sometimes it actually feels like Charlotte’s drawings ‘talk’ —— although lately I’ve sensed a certain impatience from Emily-on-the-wall with my own lack of perception; why ever has it taken me this l-o-n-g to suss “Anne”!!!The true ‘lost’ portrait of “E-M-I-L-Y” is microscopically signed in uppercase ‘C BRONTË’ in Emily’s right eye as one looks at the drawing —— its position is highlighted in green; it is an unbelievably small signature —— but it is there.  

I have nothing else that I wish to add to today’s post —— except,  

“E-M-I-L-Y” M-A-T-T-E-R-S.