Redefining Shakespeare

 

 

Gemini and Genie Award-winning documentary filmmaker Anne Henderson’s latest project, Battle of Wills, follows Henderson and a group of experts trying to determine the authenticity of the John Sanders portrait of Shakespeare. Is the portrait, a family heirloom belonging to Ottawa native Lloyd Sullivan, just another fake or could it be the only portrait of Shakespeare ever painted during the playwright’s lifetime?

 

The Charlatan’s David Wolkowski spoke with Henderson about her upcoming documentary, which premieres on Bravo! June 7.

 

The Charlatan: Why did you choose the Sanders portrait as your subject?

 

AH: I first came across the Sanders portrait in a 2001 article in Vanity Fair by the eminent Shakespeare scholar Harold Bloom. I studied literature at McGill and I’ve always loved Shakespeare. The Sanders portrait covered an entire page of the magazine and I was struck by how different it was from the Chandos portrait in the National Portrait Gallery in London that is always touted as the real thing. In the portrait before me he wasn’t soulless or sombre. He was exactly as I wanted him and pictured him to be. It was nothing like the engraving you see on the frontispiece of the First Folio. I discovered that the engraving was posthumous – done seven or eight years after Shakespeare’s death – and it dawned on me that the artist may well have been working from memory or invented it completely. I looked into the Chandos portrait and realized that its claim to authenticity is quite tenuous. The National Portrait Gallery’s claims are based on one man’s fourth-hand information written in a document that came 100 years after Shakespeare’s life.

 

TC: You said that the Sanders portrait presented Shakespeare as you always wanted him to be. What did you mean by that?

 

AH: I never saw Shakespeare as this dour-faced man. To me he was always a great humanist. He could write lines for a pickpocket, a prostitute or a king. I guess you could call that ability to mix in all types of people bohemian. I’ve always pictured him as youthful and romantic. In the Chandos portrait he looks more like an Italian merchant. In the Sanders portrait he would be only 39.

 

TC: It seems like you were sort of rocking the boat, so to speak, challenging the established order of things. Did you encounter resistance along the way?

 

AH: Oh yes. One of the things I discovered was that nobody really questions the claims of august institutions like the National Portrait Gallery. If you go to London you see a plaque below the portrait that says “Shakespeare.” And yet they have no real evidence to suggest that. But seeing as it was the first piece the gallery ever acquired, they have a vested interest in fudging evidence. But we paid handsomely to shoot on location at the Portrait Gallery and, in the end, I’m not losing any sleep over it because controversy draws people in and, as they say, no publicity is bad publicity.

 

TC: Why are you so convinced that the Chandos portrait is a fake?

 

AH: Every step of the way points to a stronger likelihood that the Sanders portrait is actually Shakespeare. The Chandos portrait is three-dimensional, which is not a characteristic of Elizabethan painting. As well, the Chandos portrait is done on canvas. This is very rare for the time. Add to that the fact that its authenticity is based on claims of hearsay 100 years after the fact and there are lots of reasons to be sceptical. On the other hand, the Sanders portrait is two-dimensional and done on wood, which is a lot more in keeping with the time period.

 

TC: Did you learn anything new about Shakespeare during the course of making this documentary?

 

AH: I realized how little is known about his life. One of the things I learned was that he was bisexual. Obviously he was married and he had children, but I didn’t know that the sonnets were in fact written to the Earl of Southampton, a beautiful 17-year-old boy with blond ringlets. It just shows that he was a writer for all people, of all sexual orientations and all economic groups.

 

TC: How did you find working with Lloyd Sullivan?

 

AH: He’s a lovely guy. He’s in his mid-70s and he’s passionate bordering on obsessed. He has the real will power and determination to keep going; there’s the battle of wills! He’s not wealthy and he’s invested his life-savings into authenticating this family portrait. It’s not about money for him, it’s about family honour.

TC: Incidentally, what is your favourite Shakespearean play?

 

AH: That’s such a hard question to answer because it really depends on what mood I’m in. But I’m definitely a big fan of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Macbeth.

 

TC: Did the information you gathered in this documentary give you ideas for further research?

 

AH: Working on this really made me see how much I enjoy the thriller genre. I loved taking a real life mystery and playing with the real life vernacular. I wouldn’t mind doing more pieces on art or theatre. But everything about the film was enjoyable. My hope is that a big Canadian institution will come along and buy the Sanders portrait. What I don’t want to happen is for some rich Arab sheik to buy it and cart it off to Dubai!