Jane Austen
Cassandra Austen (1773 to 1845) · About 1810
A small sheet of paper, no bigger than a postcard, shows a woman in a white cap with dark curls, her arms folded and her mouth set in a slightly cross expression. It is the only reasonably certain portrait of Jane Austen made from life, drawn by her older sister Cassandra, and it is one of the smallest and most visited objects in the gallery. Look for it in a case rather than on the wall, and expect to lean in close.
Cassandra was the person who knew Jane best, and this is a private sketch rather than a formal portrait. The pencil work is quick and unpolished, the watercolour on the face and cap is thin, and the arms are barely finished. The family were not impressed; a niece later said it was hideously unlike her aunt. Yet the tight mouth and the sharp sideways look fit everything we know of a writer whose novels are built on watching people. Notice how much character the artist has caught with so few lines.
The drawing stayed in the family until the gallery bought it in nineteen forty eight. In eighteen seventy, for a memoir by her nephew, it was softened into a prettier engraving with a rounder face and a gentler expression, and that version is the one on banknotes and book jackets. Compare the two in your mind and you can see how a plain family likeness was turned into a national icon.
Did You Know? Jane Austen's niece dismissed this sketch as hideously unlike her aunt, yet it remains the only portrait of the novelist made from life that is generally accepted.
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