The Oddment Emporium

A painting of the Brontë sisters by their brother Branwell Brontë in which he has been erased … sort of.

As a young man, Branwell was trained as a portrait painter in Haworth, and worked as a portrait painter in Bradford in 1838 and 1839. His most famous portrait is of his three sisters: he seems to have painted himself out, though a legend holds that after an argument his father rubbed the image out with turpentine.

A self caricature of Branwell Brontë, the brother of authors Emily, Charlotte and Anne Brontë, in bed waiting to die. 1847.

He was an alcoholic and was thought to be addicted to laudanum. His behaviour became irrational and dangerous as he developed delirium tremens. Charlotte’s letters from this time demonstrate that she was angered by his behaviour, but that her father was patient with his broken son. Although it was at this time that his sisters’ first novels were being accepted for publication, it is not known whether he was even informed. Brontë’s severe addictions masked the onset of tuberculosis, and his family did not realise that he was seriously ill until he collapsed outside the house and a local doctor identified him as being in the disease’s terminal stages. He died shortly thereafter.

EDIT: Ironically, “The brother of the Brontë sisters, Branwell Brontë, died standing up.” [Source: Qi (B Series, episode 4 “Bible”]

(Source: Wikipedia)