Emily Brontë
- Artist: Patrick Branwell Brontë
- Date: circa 1833
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 21 1/2 in. x 13 3/4 in. (546 mm x 349 mm)
- Portrays: Emily Brontë
- Museum: The National Portrait Gallery
- Collection record: The National Portrait Gallery website
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About this artwork
Oil on canvas from about 1833, this portrait shows Emily Brontë in profile, her face softly lit by a gentle background. The brushwork is loose yet careful; you can see the arched top of the frame and hints of linen texture in the canvas. It was painted by Patrick Branwell Brontë, who also created the lost group portrait that originally featured all four siblings and himself holding a gun.
After almost four decades on a wardrobe at Hill House in Banagher, Ireland, Mrs M.A. Nicholls found it cut from the larger canvas. The National Portrait Gallery acquired it in 1914 for its primary collection. Today Emily’s single fragment stands as the only surviving piece of that original group portrait.
See it in person
Emily Brontë is in the collection of The National Portrait Gallery at St Martin's Place, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
