Jane Austen's Portrait

Jane Austen Rice Portrait" Henry rice was the owner of this portrait. Henry was a direct descendant of Jane Austen's brother Edward and he was a Jane Austen Historian. He was always told growing up that this portrait was of Jane.

This fact was disputed because of the dress, time and beauty of the subject. In Russia where Ozias Humphry, the artist was from they were already sporting this style. It is said she would have been only 13, but she would have been closer to 14 or 15. Which might be hard for those of us living in the modern age to understand, but that would have made her of a marriageable age. Wealthier family members would often pay for portraits to increase the marriage ability of young ladies. It was desirable to promote good marriages to respectable, independent young gentlemen. It is believed that Francis Austen a wealthy Lawyer and Jane's great-uncle commissioned this piece for that very reason. He might have had a portrait of Cassandra Austen painted as well.

The painting seems not to have been lost in time either, there is a lineage from who the painting was left to after Jane's death and during her life. The painting was giving to Colonel Thomas Austen of Sevenoaks, Franis's grandson and Jane's cousin. It was then willed to Mrs. Elizabeth Harding-Newman as distant relative and a great admirer of Jane's novels. This painting continued being passed from one family member to another for several years, until 1884 when it was used as the frontispiece to the first collection of Jane's published letters.

As to how plain Jane was, in her youth she was never described as being very plain. If you examine of the portraits, engravings, silhouettes and watercolors that were reportedly of Jane, you can see some distinct similarities. Jane was described as being tall, fashionable, and having dark hair and brown eyes. She also had a round face and a larger nose, which are all qualities that the Rice portrait possesses.

Cassandra Austen did a very unflattering portrait of Jane, but that was when she was 35, almost 20 years after the portrait was reportedly painted. She would have lost the first bloom of youth by then. I have respect for many artist. Cassandra had her strong points, but painting faces was never one of them. She did a very lovely portrait of Fanny Austen-Leigh from behind that was really quite lovely. She also did portraits of English royal figures for a short book her sister wrote as a teenager. The book was a History of England, but the illustrations weren't wonderful.

We may never know what Jane really looked like, though I believe as her family did as far back as the year she died, that this is a portrait of a young Jane Austen.

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