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Jane Austen

"In person she was very attractive; her figure was rather tall and slender, her step light and firm, and her whole appearance expressive of health and animation. In complexion she was a clear brunette with a rich colour; she had full round cheeks, with mouth and nose small and wellformed bright hazel eyes, and brown hair forming natural curls close round her face."

James-Edward Austen,
 Jane's nephew

~

"... certainly pretty-bright & a good deal of colour in her face – like a doll – no that would not give at all the idea for she had so much expression – she was like a child – quite a child very lively and full of humour."

Mr Fowle, 
family friend

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"... her's was the first face I can remember thinking pretty ... Her hair, a darkish brown, curled naturally – it was in short curls round her face...Her face was rather round than long – she had a bright but not a pink colour – a clear brown complexion and very good hazel eyes. Her hair, a darkish brown, curled naturally, it was in short curls around her face. She always wore a cap ... before she left Steventon she was established as a very pretty girl, in the opinion of most of her neighbours."

Caroline Austen, 
Jane's niece

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"Her hair was dark brown and curled naturally, her large dark eyes were widely opened and expressive. She had clear brown skin and blushed so brightly and so readily."

An early description of young Jane at Steventon by Sir Egerton Brydges

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"She was tall and slender; her face was rounded with a clear brunette complexion and bright hazel eyes. Her curly brown hair
escaped all round her forehead, but from the time of her coming to live at Chawton she always wore a cap, except when her nieces had her in London and forbade it."

Edward Austen Leigh  of Jane's appearence in the years just after the family left Southampton

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" Her stature rather exceeded the middle height; her carriage and deportment were quiet but graceful; her complexion of the finest texture, it might with truth be said that her eloquent blood spoke through her modest
cheek." 

 " Her pure and eloquent blood spake in her cheeks and so distinctly wrought that you had almost said her body thought."

Henry Austen said of his sister

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Silhouette from the second edition of Mansfield Park (1833?) , inscribed "l'aimable Jane" and presumed to be Jane Austen. Owned by the National Portrait Gallery, which considers it is possibly by Mrs Collins, a silhouettist who worked in Bath ca. 1800. There is no documentary evidence to confirm the identity of the sitter, but the provenance and title suggest it could be JA.	Jane, painted by her sister Cassandra. Initialled ‘CEA’ and dated 1804. This has often been reproduced in recent years, and remains in family ownership.	Unfinished sketch of Jane Austen by her sister Cassandra ca. 1810. The only authenticated likeness of the author, now in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
Winchester Cathedral Library has a silhouette, said to be of Jane Austen - ‘done by herself in 1815’. However, the attribution is modern and doubtful, and the style of the silhouette itself, and the appearance of the sitter, suggest a date ca. 1895. The image may possibly be of a Victorian Jane Austen (1849-1928), a grand-daughter of JA’s brother Charles.	The Rice portrait of a young Jane Austen???	The Clarke portrait of Jane Austen ??? (from the Artworks Gallery)
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A watercolour of Jane Austen commissioned by her nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh from a local artist, a Mr Andrews of Maidenhead (1869). It remains in family ownership. James lent Andrews the portrait by Cassandra to copy "into a smoother and more finished state".	Jane Austen, steel engraving by Lizars after Mr Andrew's watercolour, used as the frontispiece  to James Edward Austen-Leigh's A Memoir of Jane Austen (1870).JA’s nieces Caroline Austen and Lizzy Rice both commented that, in this engraved version, the eyes had been made too large.	Watercolor portrait  laid into the University of Pennsylvania's copy of Jane Austen, Emma (London 1816).
An engraving of a rather sour Austen from A Portrait Gallery of Eminent Men and Women in Europe and America. Johnson, Wilson and Company, New York, 1873 From University of Texas Portrait Gallery	Found on the Internet, is this the painting that the Eminent persons engraving (left) was drawn from, or a colourised version of the engraving?
One of 21 illustrations from an early Austen biography by GE Mitton, 1905	A pen drawing by Edgar Holloway, reproduced in The English Novel by JB Priestley (1935)	A Joan Hassall woodcut, from the late 1950s-early1960s Folio Society editions of Austen novels
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The frontispiece of the Collins 1982 edition of Mansfield Park	One of a series of author portraits by David Levine, 1985. From Barnes and Noble	From the Times Literary Supplement, 1995. (Note the talons!) The artist is Peter Brookes. From Republic of Pemberley
Illustration for the University of Wisconsin's audio archives of its Jane Austen Festival, Four Turbulent Decades	Jane Austen as a Victorian, image by D Williams, 2002	Jane Austen in her cottage garden at Chawton. Painting by Tom Clifford, 2002
Portrait of Jane by  Melissa Dring, forensic artist, commissioned by the Jane Austen Centre in Bath, 2003	From  Effusions of Fancy by Jane Odiwe - "...a young Jane as she might have been at around the time that she met Tom Lefroy ... with her hair dressed for a dance and a hint of a smile."
From Wordsworth Editions, which sells millions of cut-price classic novels. Helen Trayler, its managing director, said: “The poor old thing didn’t have anything going for her in the way of looks. Her original portrait is very, very dowdy. It wouldn’t be appealing to readers, so I took it upon myself to commission a new picture of her. “We’ve given her a bit of a makeover, with make-up and some hair extensions and removed her nightcap. Now she looks great — as if she’s just walked out of a salon.”
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Jane Austen's family

Mrs Cassandra Austen Jane's mother	Jane's niece, Fanny. A water colour by Jane's sister, Cassandra	Jane Austen's Family Tree from Jane Austen in Perspective - an introduction to Jane Austen
	portrait of Jane's sister, Cassandra?	Cassandra Austen from The People in Jane Austen's Life
Some of Jane's relatives and friends
Cousin Eliza from Jane Austen in Perspective - an introduction to Jane Austen	The people in Jane Austen's life: including Tom Lefory, Harris Bigg-Wither and friends and neighbours...	Jane Austen's Father's Family Tree from Jane Austen in Perspective - an introduction to Jane Austen

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29 April 2007

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