GEOFFREY TRISTRAM -A contemporary portrait of William Shakespeare in seated pose to an interior setting before a writing desk working on a script, handmade gilt and painted frame, signed and dated 2016, measures 91.5cm x 66cm. THE 400th ANNIVERSARY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE PORTRAIT In association with Stratford-upon-Avon's Town and District Councils, April 23rd, 2016 In 2015, Stratford Town and District Councils asked Geoffrey Tristram, a professional artist from Stourbridge, to create a simple front-view painting of William Shakespeare's face, which was to be reproduced on 10,000 masks that the town were to hand to visitors during the 400th Anniversary celebrations weekend. Having successfully completed this small commission to their complete satisfaction, Geoffrey confessed that, as a lifelong Shakespeare fan, his dream job was to paint a brand-new oil portrait of the Bard. The idea was well received, and just before Christmas 2015, the larger oil painting was begun. The artist knew full well that such a picture would bring with it a massive responsibility, and he was in no doubt that it would attract criticism, both good and bad. It didn't help that, for such a world-famous person as Shakespeare, the playwright didn't appear to be overly fond of posing for artists, so there wasn't much in the way of reliable reference material to fall back upon. Geoffrey dug out copies of just about every existing painting, etching, wood cut, bust and statue that purported to be of the great man. He even found a death mask that has somehow ended up in Germany. Martin Droeshout the Younger's etching on the first folio was approved as a likeness by Shakespeare's close friend, the playwright Samuel Jonson, but the picture was quite naively drawn and in black and white. The council's brief was for Geoffrey to use the Droeshout etching as his starting point, but then to create a real interpretation that everyone could believe in. His research had been thorough. Precise measurements were taken from Droeshout's and other portraits, a costume was hired of the right style and social class for the period, and the painting was symbolically set in Shakespeare's birthplace, Henley Street, Stratford-upon-Avon, in the room where the Bard was almost certainly born. The cloth wall covering is as it would have been back in 1564. Shakespeare is seen in middle age, writing the first soliloquy from Hamlet, 'Oh that this too, too sullied flesh would melt'. He is wearing his actual gold signet ring, lost in the Holy Trinity churchyard, possibly during his daughter's wedding, and miraculously found again in Victorian times! There is an almost hidden carving in the oak panel that reads WS-CD; WS-400 in Roman numerals. The reverse of the canvas has a piece of parchment attached, with a handwritten description of the painting by the artist, alongside his very own red wax seal with a 'T' emblem! Then came the frame, a hand-made Elizabethan style made by Frinton's Frames and further customized by Geoffrey, with an inscription that runs around the inner frame, namely, the song from Cymbeline, 'Fear no more the heat of the sun', a poignant comment about how death comes to us all, which seemed fitting, given that the picture was created to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the Bard's passing. Now that the 400th Anniversary celebrations are over; the picture is being sold. It is a truly unique piece, the only Stratford-approved, 400th anniversary oil painting in existence.

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