What did Charlotte Bronte Look Like? The Famous Author of Jane Eyre as a Modern Day Woman

Have you seen the recent photograph that probably shows all three of the Brontes? It would be fascinating to revisit this image.

Bronte was described by her literary contemporaries as “diminutive,” “sickly-looking,” “old-fashioned,” “provincial,” and “past thirty and plain.” From her peer William Makepeace Thackeray, author of Vanity Fair: “The poor little woman of genius! the fiery little eager brave tremulous homely-faced creature!…without a penny worth of good looks, thirty years old I should think, buried in the country, and eating up her own heart there.”

Could you please add one that has the light grey eyes, no makeup, and hair style and clothing of her time? Your rendering does add to the argument that the photo is of the Bronte sisters. Thank you!

She doesn't look like that in the photo if it's her she looks like a brute with wired eyes

We are not sure yet,but I think that the portrait of the 3 women in that photo is real. There is no reason to believe someone lied about what was written in the backside of the photo. Not just in the photo, but in drawings, Charlotte has piercing eyes. And therefor I feel that Charlottes eyes are lost in your drawing. Her eyes must have been more intense.

A visiting clergyman fell in love with her at first sight,and, to her amazement,mailed her a marriage proposal!

Excellent, please give Emily a try:)

Hello Becca, could you remake this giving us a bit of history behind her life and career? I know it already but I enjoy your videos so much.

Thank you

That’s Zooey Deschanel! (save for the blue eyes)

Charlotte has Irish features, which is of course not surprising, although she doesn't look like her father.

Not impressed by this one, I just don’t think this is anything like Charlotte Bronte

The reconstruction looks so like Big Bella who runs my local café. I can't imagine her writing literature but you can't fault the woman's expertise with a deep fat frier.

Zooey Deschannel vibes. Amazing stuff!

It matches very well and I wasn't expecting it to be that perfect. It's a privilege to see your work, and listen to the histories. Thank you!

You made her look like zooey deschanel. In the photo she did not have those kind of delicate features, she had quite a bold and somewhat protruding forehead and larger and deeper set, and intense eyes.
In the photo she strikes me as a no nonsense bold and intense northern lass. Which would be more in keeping of the her kind.
Just because she could spin a yarn , does not make a virtue of her looks. Life in the 19C was more than a little harsh on the population and it mostly always shows in the continence of the inhabitants. Indeed as it still does today with all the home comforts of the 21C has to offer

Interesting video. Are there any Bronte descendants from Patricks side still in Ireland

She is one of my favorite authors. The photograph was fascinating. I wouldn’t use the term shy to describe her. She looks intense and serious. I think if she smiled, she would look more relaxed. Thank you for this video.

Oh thank you so much. I'm just re reading Vilette. Her writing has completly blown me away. Although I found myself having words over Vilette... Amazing work that you're doing. A bit like the portrait version of what I've been trying to do: How is this Lucy Snow?? Miss Bronte has me in kittens with her 'unreliable narrator'. I never believed the 'plain girl' malarkey. In fact it's one of the things that first put me on to the possibility that Miss Bronte might be playing cat and mouse with her admiring reader.. And to think such a straight forward and honest looking woman wrote such profound work with such a playful wit. Now that is something that amuseses me very much.

very interesting. Didnt know about the photo. Please do emily that would be amazing, thanks

I love it when you say lets see her/him ...now...its a moment of Reveal. I think you started doing this in later videos.

Question: Did you use any “family resemblance” factors when doing Charlotte’s portrait? The nose shape is so different in the two portraits. Is there a portrait of either parent, etc.? Thanks.

I think she is too pretty. One reason is that 'respectable' women did not wear make-up and in this portrait Charlotte is definitely wearing blusher and lipstick (or 'rouge', as she would have called it).

Please consider "Messalina" thank you!

Just stumbled across this channel, glad I did. So well researched and intelligently put together and to think that photo could be Charlotte! She seemed beautiful in every way that matters. Anyone interested check out Juliet Barker's biography, though bear in mind it's a BIG book.

The last photo is NOT Charlotte! She mainly looked like Bramwell's portrait. You have made her too good-looking, with the fuller lips and better cheekbones.

I think you made her too pretty. Her closest friends described her as plain. I’ve also heard convincing arguments saying that picture is not the Brontes.

It doesn't look at all like the portrait of her by Branwell, you have over prettified it.

Love it! 😊

too bad that all of these "modern" depictions do little more than cover the person in 10 inches of glamour make-up.

No…nothing like! Far too pretty for a start!

Amazing work and so interesting.

I don't visualize her with big-fleshy nose.

You did her justice she looks lovely! She's also my 6th cousin so I'm happy with what you have done here. Everything was so drab back then you brought some nice colours to the table :)

Beauty is in the eye..... We all know this. Who knows whoever told her she is ugly and she believed it? Most people believe they are not pretty and people around them would say they are.

Interesting work. Such an enigma as to what these sisters really looked like. The photograph has a woman with light greyish eyes, which contradicts Branwell's depiction. I wish you would have made her without makeup, and put her hair in a similar style as the painting, just to get a better comparison. She looks too pretty to me, from the descriptions. But otherwise, nice work!!

She could be played by Kiera Knightly. There needs to be a new Bronte film!

Three cheers for both the artist and the comment section. I'm an avid reader, but I learned more about Charlotte in 5 minutes than in a whole class!

READING FOR LIFE"
JANE EYRE!
FAMOUS LITERALLY 💥

Please do Georgiana Cavendash, Duchess of Devonshire.

I have to say that, having read her novels as well as a couple of autobiographies, I don't think that Charlotte would wear makeup, even in today's world. She was not a terribly vain person. Besides that, I think that in doing reconstructions, when you're wanting to show what someone really looked like, putting makeup on them can bring up questions as to the accuracy of a reconstruction, as well as take away from our experience of seeing them brought to life. After all, so many women in fact use make up to disguise what they really look like! I would ask you please, if you're going to use makeup in a "modern reconstruction", please also show the woman without makeup, too.

I will add, having gone back and looked at pictures of some women authors of SERIOUS fiction, in our own times, that few of these women wear makeup, and the one picture that I did see of a female author who was wearing makeup in her photos was Rebecca Solnit: she was wearing mascara (without eyeliner), a natural color of lipstick, and perhaps foundation. I don't follow the authors of more popularly oriented fiction, so I can't say if they would or not. Other commenters here have pointed out the same thing, that the real Charlotte would have scorned to wear makeup, despite the fact that she did see herself as plain looking.

Charlotte thought herself 'almost repulsive ' so her little sketch is a good rendering of her psychological assessment of her looks.

Attractive or not, the fact that she wrote Jane Eyre makes her beautiful to me. </3

Clever stuff

It is known Charlotte wasn't beautiful at all. She was described several times as not beautiful. The publisher Mr Smith said : "my first time to see her was more interesting than attractive. She was very small, not 5ft tall and her head looked to big for her body. She seemed kinda obsessed with her appearance and I believe she would have give all her genious to be beautiful."

So she looked like Zöe Dechanel?

History was apparently full of beachy waves and makeup lol

How about colouring up the Daguerrotype for comparison?

Beautiful!

Love this! Can you feature Emily Bronte as well? How about Emily Dickinson? Jane Austen?

If you type in any search machine: "Charlotte bronte self sketch" you can see a pencil sketch in her atlas book that was previously thought to be a sketch of a fellow student .But some think it is of herself because her hand seems drawn through a reversion of a mirror. If it IS her, it both relates to Jane Eyre drawing herself and also I like the expression of it. She seems both serious and playful.