This is a painting of the three Bronte sisters and a ghost.
Painted by their brother Branwell, it shows them clustered around a pillar. However, the pillar is slowly fading and his image is emerging.
Branwell shared a happy childhood with his sisters. He shared their creativity as a painter and poet. He shared their abominable health. He shared their early deaths.
But — he never shared fame. Whether he was not as talented or as disciplined one cannot know. But when Charlotte pushed her sisters into publication — Branwell was excluded.
The last years of his life were spent in self-pity and recrimination. Alcohol, laudanum, and tuberculosis swept him into his grave at 31.
Sometime in that period, he painted himself out of the picture. He covered his image with a pillar and vanished from his own portrait as he vanished from the creative circle of his sisters.
