Focus on Sanders portrait and explain the Genealogy and the Sanders family.
Extensive genealogical research has been undertaken by CASP researchers and Warwickshire and Worcestershire family historian Pamela Hinks to confirm the oral history of the Sanders family provided by Lloyd Sullivan, owner of the portrait from 1972 until his death in 2019. This research suggests that the Sanders Portrait is the only likeness of Shakespeare which traces back directly to Shakespeare's lifetime.The family of Lloyd Sullivan was traced back directly to one John Sanders, Sullivan’s ten times removed great-grandfather (thirteen generations before Sullivan). Proponents of the painting suggest that either John Sanders or his brother William painted the portrait of Shakespeare in 1603, when the family was living close to Shakespeare’s home in London, a house owned by Christopher and Mary Mountjoy on the corner of Silver Street and Monkwell Street (a. k. a. Muggle Street), in Cripplegate.The Sanders family and Shakespeare moved in circles that would have encouraged contact between the two: both families were intermarried with the Thockmorton, Catesby, and Arden families. For instance, in 1592, Phillipi Sanders (a brother of John Sanders) married Anna Heminges, a cousin of John Heminges – one of Shakespeare's closest associates. Likewise, in 1613, a Joccossa Sanders married John Heminges's cousin Thomas Heminges.An oral tradition, documented in Stephanie Nolen's Shakespeare's Face (2002), holds that for 400 years the portrait was passed down in the family while knowledge of its existence remained private. Its ownership can be verified back as far as 1909 when M. H. Spielmann studied the painting – at which time it was in the possession of T. Hale Sanders, who had taken ownership of it from his uncle through his father. Thomas (T.) Hale Sanders is the great grandfather of Lloyd Sullivan. In early 1919 Agnes Hales Sanders, grandmother of Lloyd Sullivan, travelled from Montreal to London to reclaim the Sanders Portrait. Since then it has been held in Montreal and Ottawa.The portrait's existence was made public in May 2001 by Lloyd Sullivan. Since then has undergone multiple tests and been shown in art galleries, including the National Portrait Gallery in London.
Silver Street National Portrait Gallery John Heminges Stephanie Nolen Cripplegate