Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility, 1906



This is the frontispiece of the Sense and Sensibility volume of a twelve-volume set of her works, limited run of 1250, published by Frank S. Holby. Here's the caption to the picture:

This is from a portrait of Jane Austen, said to have been paitned when she was on a visit to Bath, at about the age of fifteen, by Johann Zoffany. The original is in the possession of the Rev. J. Moreland Rice, Rector of Bramber, Sussex, and grandson of Miss Austen's second brother Edward. It is here reproduced by the kind permission of Mr. Rice, who tells me that it formerly belonged to Colonel Austen of Kippington, a descendant of the kind "Uncle Francis" Austen, who was Miss Austen's great-uncle, and the early friend of her father. He gave it to his friend, Mrs. Hardinge-Newman, a devoted admirer of the novelist, and her step-son, Dr. Hardinge-Newman, left it to Mr. Rice. -Ed.


The original painting referenced above can be found with this search. I'll be posting more from this book as I get time.

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