Professor Dumbledore

PORTRAIT OF PROFESSOR ALBUS DUMBLEDORE BY JIM KAY

Bloomsbury

This portrait of Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore shows him gazing intently towards the right with bright blue eyes. A gargoyle vase sits on the table containing the dried branch of the plant of Lunaria annua or ‘honesty’, known for its translucent seedpods. There is also a small flask, containing what might well be dragon's blood, referring to the wizard's achievement of discovering all twelve uses of the magical substance. Dumbledore's favourite sweets, lemon sherbets, feature as one of the passwords to his office. His knitting lies to one side, the orange wool curling across the table. Jim Kay's portrait captures the complexity of Dumbledore's personality – the powerful and serious wizard with a penchant for sweets and knitting.

“Albus means ‘white’ in Latin. Hagrid's first name Rubeus means ‘red’. Harry's two father figures symbolically represent different stages of the alchemical process needed to create the Philosopher's Stone.”

Joanna Norledge
Curator