The Brontë Sisters (Anne Brontë; Emily Brontë; Charlotte Brontë)

The Brontë Sisters (Anne Brontë; Emily Brontë; Charlotte Brontë)

by Patrick Branwell Brontë
oil on canvas, circa 1834
35 1/2 in. x 29 3/8 in. (902 mm x 746 mm)
Purchased, 1914
Primary Collection
NPG 1725

Sitters

Anne Brontë (1820-1849), Novelist. Sitter in 1 portrait.
Charlotte Brontë (Mrs A.B. Nicholls) (1816-1855), Novelist. Sitter associated with 4 portraits.
Emily Brontë (1818-1848), Novelist. Sitter in 3 portraits.

Artist

Patrick Branwell Brontë (1817-1848). Artist associated with 3 portraits.

This portrait

This is the only surviving group portrait of the three famous novelist sisters - from left to right: Anne, Emily and Charlotte Brontë. The portrait was known from a description of it by the novelist Elizabeth Gaskell who saw it in 1853. It was thought to have been lost until it was discovered folded up on top of a cupboard by the second wife of Charlotte Brontë's husband, the Reverend A.B. Nicholls, in 1914. In the centre of the group a male figure, previously concealed by a painted pillar, can now be discerned; it is almost certainly a self-portrait of the artist, their brother Branwell Brontë.

Related works

NPG 1724: Emily Brontë (related to)

Linked publications

Audio Guide
Victorian Portraits Resource Pack, p. 10
Cooper, John, Visitor's Guide, 2000, p. 77
Cooper, John, A Guide to the National Portrait Gallery, 2009, p. 41
Eger, Elizabeth; Peltz, Lucy, Brilliant Women: 18th Century Bluestockings, 2008 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 13 March to 15 June 2008), p. 137
Eger, Elizabeth; Peltz, Lucy, Brilliant Women: 18th Century Bluestockings, 2008 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 13 March to 15 June 2008), p. 137
Forster, Margaret, BP Portrait Award 2006, 2006 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 15 June to 17 September 2006), p. 11
Funnell, Peter, Victorian Portraits in the National Portrait Gallery Collection, 1996, p. 10
Funnell, Peter (introduction); Marsh, Jan, A Guide to Victorian and Edwardian Portraits, 2011, p. 37
Ormond, Richard, Early Victorian Portraits, 1973, p. 57
Piper, David, The English Face, 1992, p. 206
Saumarez Smith, Charles, The National Portrait Gallery: An Illustrated Guide, 2000, p. 119
Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 713

Subjects & Themes

Books and libraries
Eminent women tour
Family and children tour
Family portraits
Group portraits
Highlights tour
Victorian tour
Writers tour