Richard Burbage

Richard Burbage (c. 1567-1619) became the leading actor in the Lord Chamberlain's Company (subsequently the King's Men) – the company of actors for which William Shakespeare (1564-1616) wrote plays during most of his professional career. Burbage inherited the Blackfriars Theatre and another, simply called ‘The Theatre’ in Shoreditch, London, the latter of which Burbage later demolished, using the materials to construct instead the Globe Theatre on the south bank of the Thames river. There Burbage played a succession of leading roles in plays by renowned playwrights of the period including Shakespeare, for whom he played the original title roles of Richard III, Hamlet, King Lear and Othello.

There has been some debate as to whether Burbage was the sitter for this painting or if this is in fact a self-portrait. After all, as well as being an actor, he had some reputation as a painter, though it is thought that he mainly painted heraldic images. The cropped manner of this close-up portrait is due to the fact that the head has been painted, probably from life, to be later sewn into a larger canvas. This practice allowed the painter to work away from the studio. The fact that this portrait has never been inserted into a larger canvas suggests either that the image became redundant, perhaps painted just before Burbage’s death, or that the painter was dissatisfied with the work.