An exhibition to overturn the tarnished image of the father of the Bronte sisters is being launched.

It aims to reveal that the Reverend Patrick Bronte was not a stern and unsophisticated man but a loving and devoted father.

The exhibition is to be launched at the Bronte Parsonage Museum in Haworth on Thursday, March 17, the day of his birth in 1777, on St Patrick’s Day.

This year is the 150th anniversary of his death in Haworth in June 1861, having been Perpetual Curate for 41 years and outliving all his children.

Ann Dinsdale, Bronte Parsonage Museum collection manager, who has helped put the exhibition together, said the well-known photograph of Mr Bronte, taken towards the end of his life, was not a true reflection of his character.

“Remember, by then he had outlived all his family having lost his wife and six children and most of his friends and contemporaries,” she said.

“The picture shows a remarkable determined expression, but it hides the other side of his character which was loving and very supportive.”

He was an author – mostly moral and religious text – and many of his books were on the shelves at the Parsonage as his children Charlotte, Emily, Anne and Branwell grew up. Mr Bronte also got a bad press from Elizabeth Gaskell in her biography of Charlotte Bronte.

The exhibition runs until March 31, 2012, in the Bonnell Room.