Celebrating Charlotte Bronte : 1816-1855

Lovely little exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery celebrating the 200 anniversary of the birth of Charlotte Bronte.

It made good use of items from the gallery alongside archive material leant by Haworth Parsonage. Of course the centre piece was the wonderfully battered portrait of the three sisters by their brother Branwell and the chalk drawing by George Richmond. It was nice that the latter was shown her alongside pictures by the same artist of the contemporary authors Mrs Gaskell and Harriet Martineau.

However most interesting were the archive pieces including a pair of her shoes and lots of watercolours by Charlotte. I was moved by the Memorial cards for Charlotte, Emily and Branwell and a letter from Charlotte husband telling a friend of her death. I’d not realised that her husband didn’t die until 1906, a date which seems another world to the Brontes.

Closes 14 August 2016.

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