William Shakespeare
Historical painted portrait
Chandos portrait; public domain. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Faces behind the words
The portrait gallery.
Explore 78 historical portraits and photographs. Later artistic depictions are identified as such; they are not presented as eyewitness likenesses.
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Emily Dickinson
Historical daguerreotype
Restored historical daguerreotype; public domain. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Photographic portrait, 1857
Josiah Johnson Hawes; public domain. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Confucius
Traditional painted depiction; not a lifetime portrait
Tang-dynasty depiction; public domain. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Jane Austen
Watercolour portrait by Cassandra Austen
Cassandra Austen, circa 1810; public domain. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Kahlil Gibran
Historical photographic portrait
Fred Holland Day / Metropolitan Museum of Art; CC0. CC0. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Marcus Aurelius
Later sculptural depiction by Laurys Gillis, 1737
Laurys Gillis / Rijksmuseum; CC0. CC0. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Photographic portrait, 1882
Gustav Adolf Schultze; public domain. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Oscar Wilde
Photographic portrait by Napoleon Sarony
Napoleon Sarony. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Mark Twain
Historical photographic portrait
A. F. Bradley, New York. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Albert Einstein
Photographic portrait by Oren Jack Turner
Oren Jack Turner. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Charlotte Brontë
Painted portrait by Branwell Brontë
Branwell Brontë; restored reproduction. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Painted portrait by Vasily Perov
Vasily Perov; Google Art Project reproduction. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Henry David Thoreau
Historical photographic portrait
Benjamin D. Maxham; restored reproduction. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Walt Whitman
Photographic portrait by George Collins Cox
George Collins Cox; restoration by Adam Cuerden. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Virginia Woolf
Photographic portrait, 1902
George Charles Beresford; restoration by Adam Cuerden. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Marie Curie
Photographic portrait, circa 1920s
Henri Manuel. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Franz Kafka
Photographic portrait, 1923
Unknown photographer. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Rabindranath Tagore
Photographic portrait, 1926
Georges Chevalier. CC BY 4.0. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Frederick Douglass
Photographic portrait, circa 1879
George Kendall Warren; cropped reproduction. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Leo Tolstoy
Colour photographic portrait, 1908
Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii; cropped reproduction. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Mary Wollstonecraft
Painted portrait by John Opie
John Opie. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
François de La Rochefoucauld
Later artistic depiction
Théodore Chassériau. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Historical portrait
Creator not recorded in the Commons metadata. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Christina Rossetti
Drawn portrait
Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Historical photographic portrait
Photographer not specified. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Painted portrait, 1828
Joseph Karl Stieler. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Augustine of Hippo
Later artistic depiction; not a lifetime portrait
Philippe de Champaigne. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Baltasar Gracián
Painted portrait
Anonymous artist; restored reproduction. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Francis Bacon
Painted portrait
Paul van Somer I; formerly attributed to Frans Pourbus the Younger. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Benjamin Franklin
Painted portrait, circa 1785
Joseph-Siffred Duplessis. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Laozi
Ming-dynasty depiction; not a lifetime portrait
Zhang Lu / National Palace Museum; cropped reproduction. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Michel de Montaigne
Painted portrait
Unknown artist. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
George Eliot
Painted portrait
François D’Albert Durade. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Epictetus
1715 frontispiece; an imagined later likeness
William Sonmans / Michael Burghers. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Plato
Sculptural copy of an ancient portrait
Marie-Lan Nguyen. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Leonardo da Vinci
Drawn portrait
Attributed to Francesco Melzi; colour-corrected reproduction. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
William Blake
Painted portrait
Thomas Phillips. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
William Wordsworth
Painted portrait
Benjamin Haydon. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Elizabeth Gaskell
Painted portrait, 1832
William John Thomson. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Seneca the Younger
Sculptural depiction; photograph of an ancient bust
Calidius. CC BY-SA 3.0. Displayed in a portrait crop.
John Milton
Detail from a painted portrait
Anonymous artist. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Sophocles
Sculptural depiction; cast of an ancient bust
shakko. CC BY-SA 3.0. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Charles Dickens
Historical photographic portrait
Jeremiah Gurney. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Paul Laurence Dunbar
Photographic portrait, circa 1890
The African-American Experience in Ohio, 1850–1920. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Cicero
Photograph of a sculptural portrait
José Luiz. CC BY-SA 4.0. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Omar Khayyam
Later sculptural depiction; not a lifetime portrait
Alireza Javaheri. CC BY 3.0. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Robert Louis Stevenson
Historical photographic portrait
Henry Walter Barnett. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Louisa May Alcott
Photographic portrait, circa 1870
Warren’s Portraits, Boston; restoration by Adam Cuerden. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Horace
Medallion depiction; not a verified lifetime likeness
Unknown maker; collection reproduction. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Alfred Tennyson
Historical photographic portrait
Elliott & Fry. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Robert Browning
Photographic portrait, circa 1888
Herbert Rose Barraud; restoration by Adam Cuerden. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Anne Brontë
Drawn portrait
Charlotte Brontë. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Alexander Pope
Painted portrait
Michael Dahl. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Jonathan Swift
Painted portrait
Charles Jervas. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Emily Brontë
Painted portrait
Branwell Brontë; restored reproduction. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Portrait at age 42
Samuel Cousins, after Washington Allston. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Photographic portrait, 1860–1864
Mathew Benjamin Brady. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Jack London
Historical photographic portrait
Published by L. C. Page and Company, Boston, 1903. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Anton Chekhov
Photographic portrait, 1889
V. Chekhovskii, Moscow. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Robert Burns
Painted portrait, 1787
Alexander Nasmyth. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Ambrose Bierce
Historical photographic portrait
Photographer not recorded in the Commons metadata. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Mary Shelley
Painted portrait
Richard Rothwell. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Herman Melville
Painted portrait
Joseph Oriel Eaton. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Edith Wharton
Historical photographic portrait
E. F. Cooper, Newport, Rhode Island; cropped reproduction. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Thomas Hardy
Photographic portrait, circa 1910–1915
Bain News Service; restored and cropped reproduction. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Saki
Photographic portrait, 1913
E. O. Hoppé. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Baruch Spinoza
Historical painted likeness
Anonymous artist. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Miguel de Cervantes
Traditional artistic likeness; identification and attribution uncertain
Traditionally attributed to Juan de Jáuregui. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Henrik Ibsen
Painted portrait, 1895
Eilif Peterssen. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
René Descartes
Painted portrait
After Frans Hals. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Friedrich Schiller
Painted portrait
Anton Graff. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Henry James
Painted portrait
John Singer Sargent; restored reproduction. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Charles Darwin
Historical photographic portrait
Henry Maull and John Fox; cropped by Beao. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Alexandre Dumas
Historical photographic portrait
Nadar. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Victor Hugo
Photographic portrait, 1876
Étienne Carjat. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Immanuel Kant
Painted portrait
Johann Gottlieb Becker. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.
Blaise Pascal
Later painted likeness, circa 1690
Unknown artist, after François II Quesnel. Public domain. Displayed in a portrait crop.