A copy of the world-famous portrait of the three Bronte sisters Charlotte Emily and Anne - one of the star exhibits at the National Portrait Gallery in London - has been hung at the Bronte Parsonage Museum in Haworth.

It replaces the old printed copy of the painting by the sisters' brother Branwell, which has hung in the stairway of the Brontes' former home for decades.

The new version from experts at the National Portrait Gallery, which unlike the old print is the exact size, also mirrors the authenticity of the original portrait, painted in 1834.

It is on canvas and the image is so precise that Branwell's pencil lines in the hair of the sisters can be seen.

And the creases created by folding when it was removed from the Parsonage in the mid-19th century, are more evident.

It is also presented in a frame more like the original.

Alan Bentley, the museum director, said: "The print is one of the most popular pieces in the museum - it's one of the first things people ask to see. And the postcard of the image is also one of the best sellers.

"The old one was taken down for about six weeks recently for an exhibition and people were asking where it was."

On Charlotte Bronte's death, in March 1855 aged 38 in the early stages of pregnancy, her husband, the Haworth curate Reverend Arthur Bell Nicholls, took it home to Ireland. It was bequeathed to the National Portrait Gallery in 1914.

The portrait was painted around 1834 when Branwell was only 17. There is a gap in the composition, between Emily and Charlotte, where he painted out his own original image.

The writer Elizabeth Gaskell, who wrote a biography of Charlotte, the eldest sister, saw the composition in 1853.

A spokesman for the National Portrait Gallery said the museum had owned the painting since 1914, when it was donated by the second wife of Rev Nicholls.

"It was thought to be lost but she found it folded up on the top of a cupboard," she said.