From left to right

Replica of the Shakespeare bust from Holy Trinity church, Stratford-upon-Avon, which is kept in the Folger Shakespeare Library in America. The original church bust, which shows Shakespeare holding a quill pen, was designed and erected by close friends of the playwright not long after his death in 1616.

The Flowers portrait, perhaps the most famous image of Shakespeare, given to the town of Stratford by a local brewing family in 1895, was proved to be a fake in 2005. Yellow ochre, one of the pigments used in the painting, became available only in 1814. The picture is now owned by the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Copper engraving by Martin Droeshout, the Flemish artist, features on the title page of the First Folio, the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays, published in 1623. It was later put on Folios 2, 3 and 4 and is considered to be a genuine likeness because two of the writer’s friends advised Droeshout.

Times Archive, 1909: Shakespeare in London

Fresh documents on the poet and his theatres

Related Links

• Is this the real Shakespeare at last?

The Chandos portrait, painted around 1610, bears a similarity to the Droeshout image. However, even the National Portrait Gallery, which owns it, has doubts about it being Shakespeare. Praised as a likeness by contemporaries such as Ben Jonson, it is thought to have been painted by John Taylor.

Editor's choice

• The 100 Best Films of the Decade
• 70 facts you didn't know about Marvel
• The 50 Biggest Movies Of 2010