TOEFL Integrated Writing Practice Test 054Jane Austen

Jane Austen (1775-1817) is one of the most renowned English novelists, and her works are more popular today than ever, with several having been adapted into Hollywood films recently. However, we have limited records of her appearance. For a long time, the only widely accepted image of Austen was an amateur drawing of her as an adult, sketched by her sister Cassandra. But recently, a professionally painted, full-length portrait of a teenage girl, owned by a member of the Austen family, has been put up for sale. While the painting isn’t explicitly labeled as Jane Austen, there are compelling reasons to believe she is the subject.

First, in 1882, several decades after Austen’s passing, her family permitted the use of the portrait as an illustration in a published edition of her letters. This indicates that Austen’s own family identified the girl in the painting as Jane. For over a century, the Austen family has thus supported the notion that the portrait indeed represents Jane Austen.

Second, the face of the girl in the portrait bears a clear resemblance to that in Cassandra’s drawing, which is a known depiction of Austen. Although Cassandra’s sketch is somewhat amateur, it conveys specific details about Jane’s facial features. Even though the sketch portrays an adult Austen, the facial features, such as the shape of the eyebrows, nose, mouth, and overall face structure, closely match those of the teenager in the painting.

Third, although the painting is unsigned and undated, there is evidence suggesting it was created when Austen was a teenager. The style of the portrait links it to Ozias Humphrey, a society portrait artist who would have been the kind of professional that the affluent Austen family might have hired. Humphrey was active in the late 1780s and early 1790s, the exact time when Jane Austen would have been the age of the girl in the painting.