0:00:05 > 0:00:08It may have been an age before photography,
0:00:08 > 0:00:12but we know what most of the great Britons of the past look like.
0:00:12 > 0:00:16Their images here at the National Portrait Gallery in London
0:00:16 > 0:00:21still shape how we regard them today.
0:00:21 > 0:00:25The 18th and early 19th century was a golden age for British portraiture
0:00:25 > 0:00:28and it wasn't just these grandees who sought
0:00:28 > 0:00:33immortality through art, but people further down the social scale.
0:00:33 > 0:00:40One of the greatest Britons of the period remains tantalisingly out of reach.
0:00:40 > 0:00:45This is the only authenticated image of Jane Austen which is known
0:00:45 > 0:00:50to exist, so amongst all these grand paintings, there's only this tiny sketch
0:00:50 > 0:00:54by her sister Cassandra which is a rough little scribble, really.
0:00:54 > 0:00:58Even people in her own family didn't think it was a good likeness.
0:00:58 > 0:01:00So what did Jane Austen,
0:01:00 > 0:01:04one of the most famous authors of all time, really look like?
0:01:04 > 0:01:06And why are we so desperate to know?
0:01:06 > 0:01:10People long to find portraits of writers they admire.
0:01:10 > 0:01:13We all long to find them and the longing to have one,
0:01:13 > 0:01:19the longing to feel, here she is at last is very understandable.
0:01:19 > 0:01:24Jane Austen is a figure in whom we invest so many different ideas
0:01:24 > 0:01:28and fantasies about England, about class, about desire,
0:01:28 > 0:01:32about sisterhood and I think, on one hand,
0:01:32 > 0:01:38we want to see her everywhere - bumper stickers, mugs, book bags.
0:01:38 > 0:01:42At the same time, seeing her makes us a little uncomfortable.
0:01:44 > 0:01:48Now a small portrait has come to light which its owner believes
0:01:48 > 0:01:51is a true likeness of Jane Austen.
0:01:51 > 0:01:55If it can be authenticated, and, let's face it, that is a huge if,
0:01:55 > 0:01:57the picture itself would be worth a fortune
0:01:57 > 0:02:00but it would also give us insight to the society in which
0:02:00 > 0:02:05Jane Austen lived and completely overturn our idea of the novelist.
0:02:05 > 0:02:10For so long, she has been glossed as dear Aunt Jane, living a quiet,
0:02:10 > 0:02:14genteel retirement here at Chawton Cottage in Hampshire.
0:02:16 > 0:02:21The cosy public image of dear Aunt Jane might just be about to change.
0:02:21 > 0:02:27Could this be the first time the world has seen the true face of Jane Austen?
0:02:29 > 0:02:33If it is the author, what could this picture tell us
0:02:33 > 0:02:35about the world that she inhabited?
0:02:35 > 0:02:40If it isn't, who might this poised, self-confident woman writer be?
0:02:43 > 0:02:47I went to meet the woman who's determined to find out -
0:02:47 > 0:02:53literary scholar Dr Paula Byrne is researching a biography of Austen.
0:02:53 > 0:02:57In May 2011, she first set eyes on a picture which she believes
0:02:57 > 0:03:02could revolutionise our view of one of Britain's greatest writers.
0:03:02 > 0:03:04I looked at the face
0:03:04 > 0:03:12and I had this moment of recognition that this could be Jane Austen.
0:03:12 > 0:03:17It is completely different from my idea of what Jane Austen would have looked like.
0:03:17 > 0:03:20Really? In what respect? Can you...?
0:03:20 > 0:03:23I have a much more cutesy idea of her, somehow.
0:03:23 > 0:03:26What did you think when you first saw it?
0:03:26 > 0:03:29When I first saw it,
0:03:29 > 0:03:33I had a deep intake of breath. "Gosh, that really looks like her brothers."
0:03:33 > 0:03:36If Paula's right,
0:03:36 > 0:03:41her portrait would be one of the literary revelations of the century,
0:03:41 > 0:03:44as it captures the sitter in the act of writing.
0:03:44 > 0:03:47Some of the details seem to point in the right direction.
0:03:47 > 0:03:51The architecture in the background could be appropriate to Austen -
0:03:51 > 0:03:53she came from a church family.
0:03:53 > 0:03:59On the table sits a cat - often associated with spinsterhood. Austen never married.
0:03:59 > 0:04:01And at least at some point,
0:04:01 > 0:04:05someone has believed this to be Jane Austen as her name is on the frame.
0:04:07 > 0:04:11There is a date of death here, "Born 1775, died 1817."
0:04:11 > 0:04:15Doesn't that mean that the picture can't possibly have been painted in her lifetime?
0:04:15 > 0:04:18Well, of course, the frame could be later.
0:04:18 > 0:04:21That didn't worry me too much at all.
0:04:21 > 0:04:25What do we actually know about what she really looked like?
0:04:25 > 0:04:28This is Anna Lefroy, Jane Austen's beloved niece.
0:04:28 > 0:04:33"The figure, tall and slender, not drooping, fine,
0:04:33 > 0:04:37"naturally-curling hair and the rather small, but well-shaped nose."
0:04:37 > 0:04:40A small nose. I wouldn't call that a "small" nose.
0:04:41 > 0:04:44That is something we need to debate.
0:04:44 > 0:04:48I don't have any idea what people thought in the 18th century
0:04:48 > 0:04:51was a small nose, but I can tell you that Jane Austen's mother had
0:04:51 > 0:04:54a large aristocratic, beaky nose.
0:04:54 > 0:04:58What I thought was so compelling was that, if this was
0:04:58 > 0:05:05painted in her lifetime, that would be an extraordinary thing to see.
0:05:05 > 0:05:09So extraordinary. It's going to be very hard to prove, isn't it?
0:05:09 > 0:05:13The picture had featured in a Bonham's auction where it was described
0:05:13 > 0:05:16as an "imaginary" portrait of the novelist.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19That is one not drawn from life.
0:05:19 > 0:05:23It was coming up to our 15th wedding anniversary...
0:05:23 > 0:05:27'Paula's husband. Prof Jonathan Bate. Shakespearian scholar
0:05:27 > 0:05:29'and provost of Worcester College Oxford
0:05:29 > 0:05:32'bought the portrait for her as an anniversary present.
0:05:32 > 0:05:36'Because it had been dismissed as "imaginary",
0:05:36 > 0:05:39'he was able to pick it up for £2,000.'
0:05:39 > 0:05:45The thing that struck me most is that this is clearly a picture of a writer.
0:05:45 > 0:05:47If is was a single sheet of paper there,
0:05:47 > 0:05:52it could have been any woman of the regency period writing a letter,
0:05:52 > 0:05:53but it's not a single sheet of paper.
0:05:53 > 0:05:56It's a sheath of papers and you can actually see,
0:05:56 > 0:06:01if you get in close, a line of words written on it.
0:06:01 > 0:06:05Not quite close enough to say, "It is a truth universally acknowledged..."
0:06:05 > 0:06:07- That would be very handy. - That would have been handy.
0:06:07 > 0:06:11It's just beginning to dawn on me how potentially significant
0:06:11 > 0:06:13Paula's theory could be.
0:06:13 > 0:06:15We are all of us, consciously or not,
0:06:15 > 0:06:19influenced by the dust-jacket picture of an author
0:06:19 > 0:06:24so just compare this, the prettified Victorian image based on
0:06:24 > 0:06:30the original sketch by Cassandra, and then this far stronger image.
0:06:30 > 0:06:33There's potentially a lot at stake here.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38The Victorian image of Jane Austen was commissioned by her family
0:06:38 > 0:06:41from the artist James Andrews.
0:06:41 > 0:06:46It reflects their desire to stress her ladylike respectability.
0:06:46 > 0:06:50But is Paula really any more objective?
0:06:50 > 0:06:55Do we all project onto Austen the kind of woman we want to see?
0:06:55 > 0:06:59The family portrait that went out in 1870 was the first time
0:06:59 > 0:07:02that the public had ever seen Jane Austen.
0:07:02 > 0:07:09That made her look very pretty, prim and, let's face it, quite dim.
0:07:09 > 0:07:12That had a huge legacy on Jane Austen and her work.
0:07:12 > 0:07:16My portrait presents a very different sort of Jane Austen.
0:07:16 > 0:07:21It presents an image of a professional woman writer.
0:07:21 > 0:07:25She seems very comfortable in her own skin. She's taking on the world.
0:07:27 > 0:07:31But Paula faces an uphill struggle if she's to convince the world
0:07:31 > 0:07:33that her portrait is the true face of Jane Austen.
0:07:33 > 0:07:37She'll first have to establish that it isn't a fake
0:07:37 > 0:07:39and that it dates from Austen's lifetime -
0:07:39 > 0:07:41she died in 1817.
0:07:41 > 0:07:45You haven't given me too much to work with, I'm afraid.
0:07:45 > 0:07:49Can we go in quite close on her face?
0:07:49 > 0:07:51She will have to get to grips with each of the mysterious clues
0:07:51 > 0:07:55the portrait seems to contain.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58I think we can safely say that's not the building.
0:07:58 > 0:07:59We have to find out where it is.
0:08:01 > 0:08:04Then she'll have to give a convincing account of
0:08:04 > 0:08:07how her picture was produced and who the artist might have been.
0:08:07 > 0:08:12And she'll have to square all of that with what we know about Austen herself.
0:08:12 > 0:08:16A writer about whom surprisingly little is known for certain.
0:08:16 > 0:08:24Could a portrait of Jane have survived without the Austen family acknowledging its existence?
0:08:24 > 0:08:27I really do think it would be extraordinary
0:08:27 > 0:08:31if she'd had her portrait painted and her brother and sister were alive
0:08:31 > 0:08:34and they adored her and she became...
0:08:34 > 0:08:36The publisher wanted a picture of her and they said
0:08:36 > 0:08:39"There isn't a picture of her." Why should they have done that?
0:08:39 > 0:08:42Why should they have concealed a picture of her?
0:08:42 > 0:08:45Finally, Paula plans to present her findings
0:08:45 > 0:08:48to three of the world's authorities on Austen.
0:08:48 > 0:08:50Can she convince them that this
0:08:50 > 0:08:54radically different vision of the novelist is really her?
0:08:54 > 0:08:59What do you think Paula Byrne's chances are of getting her picture authenticated?
0:08:59 > 0:09:03Nil. N-I-L. Nil.
0:09:05 > 0:09:09Amidst all the countless images here among the stacks of the National Portrait Gallery,
0:09:09 > 0:09:12there is a box which could be pretty worrying for Paula.
0:09:12 > 0:09:18Inside here, there are lots of images which are all supposed to be of Jane Austen,
0:09:18 > 0:09:21but have been rejected by the gallery as inauthentic.
0:09:22 > 0:09:24Paula's got quite a mountain to climb.
0:09:29 > 0:09:31The first thing Paula has to establish
0:09:31 > 0:09:35is whether her picture is an out-and-out fake.
0:09:35 > 0:09:40Dr Nick Eastaugh is a world leader in the scientific testing of artworks.
0:09:40 > 0:09:42If he's spots something fishy,
0:09:42 > 0:09:44Paula's theory that her picture shows Jane Austen
0:09:44 > 0:09:48and was done in her lifetime will be dead in the water.
0:09:48 > 0:09:54We know it's on vellum. We know it's wash with chalk
0:09:54 > 0:09:56and picked out in ink
0:09:56 > 0:09:59or pencil.
0:09:59 > 0:10:02Vellum might have been used at any time,
0:10:02 > 0:10:06but some of the materials that have been applied
0:10:06 > 0:10:08is what I think we'll focus on.
0:10:08 > 0:10:11The little touches of white and so on.
0:10:11 > 0:10:13There are a number of things that were
0:10:13 > 0:10:20introduced in the 19th century that we'd be looking for specifically.
0:10:20 > 0:10:25Things like zinc white that came in in the middle of that century.
0:10:25 > 0:10:27We'll have to see what we see.
0:10:27 > 0:10:31Over the coming week,
0:10:31 > 0:10:34Dr Eastaugh will subject the portrait to a series of forensic tests.
0:10:34 > 0:10:35Gosh, it's out.
0:10:35 > 0:10:38Before he begins,
0:10:38 > 0:10:41the back of the portrait yields a potentially significant clue.
0:10:41 > 0:10:46- Goodness me.- This is the moment I think you've been waiting for.
0:10:46 > 0:10:47This is the moment I've been waiting for.
0:10:47 > 0:10:54Here, we have "Miss Jane Austin" and the Austin is spelt with an "I".
0:10:54 > 0:11:02Which is a misspelling which throws up a set of quite interesting questions.
0:11:02 > 0:11:06Would a faker make such an elementary blunder?
0:11:06 > 0:11:08Could someone who knew this to be Jane Austen
0:11:08 > 0:11:10conceivably misspell her name in this way?
0:11:10 > 0:11:13Or could the inscription simply mean
0:11:13 > 0:11:15this was a completely different woman
0:11:15 > 0:11:17who really did spell her name with an I.
0:11:17 > 0:11:19During the course of her quest,
0:11:19 > 0:11:22Paula must find an answer to these questions.
0:11:25 > 0:11:28There's another thing that's been troubling me.
0:11:28 > 0:11:32If Paula's portrait really could be Jane Austen, it would be highly valuable.
0:11:32 > 0:11:37So how is her husband able to buy it for £2,000?
0:11:37 > 0:11:39While Paula waited for the test results,
0:11:39 > 0:11:41I tracked down the man who sold it,
0:11:41 > 0:11:44manuscripts dealer Roy Davids.
0:11:44 > 0:11:46So, how did you come across this painting?
0:11:46 > 0:11:52I bought it for £50 in 1982
0:11:52 > 0:11:53and I wrote to the owner
0:11:53 > 0:11:57and asked, did she know anything about the background of it?
0:11:57 > 0:11:59And she wrote to me - there's the letter -
0:11:59 > 0:12:03"Alas, I have absolutely no background information about it
0:12:03 > 0:12:06"and do not think that any papers or files will produce any."
0:12:06 > 0:12:08And so, Anna...
0:12:08 > 0:12:10Anna de Goguel.
0:12:10 > 0:12:15So provenance was a dead end, as far as I was concerned.
0:12:15 > 0:12:19So what did you then go about doing
0:12:19 > 0:12:22to try and see if the picture was genuine?
0:12:22 > 0:12:26Over the years, I did little bits and pieces at it.
0:12:26 > 0:12:32Roy's attempts to authenticate the portrait soon hit an implacable obstacle.
0:12:32 > 0:12:33It's just not her.
0:12:33 > 0:12:37It's just somebody's idea of what they hoped she might have looked like.
0:12:37 > 0:12:41Leading Austen expert Deirdre le Faye dismissed the picture
0:12:41 > 0:12:47as an imaginary image done by somebody who'd never set eyes on Jane Austen.
0:12:47 > 0:12:51So when I came to sell it,
0:12:51 > 0:12:55I felt obliged to take notice of what she had said.
0:12:55 > 0:12:58She is a recognised name in the field
0:12:58 > 0:13:03and I felt that I had to give her full dues.
0:13:03 > 0:13:09I think it would be worth somewhere between 100,000 and a million,
0:13:09 > 0:13:11if you could prove it.
0:13:11 > 0:13:15But unless there is an absolute proof that this is Jane Austen,
0:13:15 > 0:13:18it's not worth 100,000 and it's not worth a million.
0:13:20 > 0:13:23I headed straight to Portishead in Somerset
0:13:23 > 0:13:28to meet the woman who dismissed the portrait in no uncertain terms.
0:13:29 > 0:13:33Paula's quest really could cause quite a stir.
0:13:33 > 0:13:37Jane Austen inspires an extraordinary devotion amongst her fans
0:13:37 > 0:13:42and the experts who study her, known collectively as the Janeites.
0:13:42 > 0:13:44The doyen of them all
0:13:44 > 0:13:48and a woman with a formidable reputation is Deirdre Le Faye,
0:13:48 > 0:13:52the editor of Jane's letters and keeper of the Austen flame.
0:13:53 > 0:13:58How certain are you that the portrait we're discussing
0:13:58 > 0:14:02isn't genuine? Are you at all open to persuasion on this?
0:14:02 > 0:14:03No.
0:14:03 > 0:14:05Flat no.
0:14:05 > 0:14:07I'm sorry for whoever may have bought it now
0:14:07 > 0:14:10but no, there are too many things wrong with it.
0:14:10 > 0:14:11It's purely symbolic.
0:14:11 > 0:14:15It doesn't in any way resemble the family portraits.
0:14:15 > 0:14:19It stems from, in my opinion,
0:14:19 > 0:14:22brother Henry's original memoir of Jane Austen,
0:14:22 > 0:14:24which was published in 1818.
0:14:25 > 0:14:28'Henry Austen's description is tantalisingly vague.'
0:14:28 > 0:14:32He says his sister was "exceeding the middle height"
0:14:32 > 0:14:36that her complexion was of "the finest texture"
0:14:36 > 0:14:39and that her features were "separately good."
0:14:39 > 0:14:41What I think happened
0:14:41 > 0:14:44was that someone read brother Henry's description
0:14:44 > 0:14:48and thought, "Ah, what a nice lady she must have been. I will draw my idea of her."
0:14:48 > 0:14:52You know, like that. That happened 80-90 years later
0:14:52 > 0:14:56but that is somebody's idea of what they thought Jane Austen looked like,
0:14:56 > 0:14:58which I prefer, which is why I bought it.
0:14:58 > 0:15:01I think he's done it very nicely.
0:15:01 > 0:15:03Jane and Cassandra never married
0:15:03 > 0:15:07so there was never any reason for them to have marriage miniatures done,
0:15:07 > 0:15:10never reason to have family portraits done.
0:15:10 > 0:15:14No reason for great big portraits to hang in a small
0:15:14 > 0:15:17and rather damp parsonage, as it was.
0:15:17 > 0:15:20Deirdre raises an important question
0:15:20 > 0:15:23about Jane Austen's place and status in her family.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26How likely is it that a woman like Austen -
0:15:26 > 0:15:28the spinster daughter of a rural clergyman -
0:15:28 > 0:15:31would have sat for a portrait in the first place?
0:15:33 > 0:15:35Every regency portrait tells a story
0:15:35 > 0:15:38about how the sitter themselves wanted to be portrayed,
0:15:38 > 0:15:44the relationship between the artist and their subject and social status.
0:15:44 > 0:15:49We're all very familiar with those grand oil paintings of aristocrats in their palaces
0:15:49 > 0:15:51but what about the class below that?
0:15:51 > 0:15:55The world of the gentry, which Jane Austen herself inhabited.
0:15:57 > 0:16:00A gentry family would be conscious of its history.
0:16:00 > 0:16:05The aristocracy inherit land and titles and they're great ones for celebrating their dynasties.
0:16:05 > 0:16:09The gentry inherit land but not titles
0:16:09 > 0:16:11so commemorating members of the family
0:16:11 > 0:16:15and passing down portraits would have been important to them.
0:16:15 > 0:16:20But there's a great range of wealth within that class, that social rank.
0:16:20 > 0:16:24Austen's particular branch of the family wasn't very wealthy.
0:16:24 > 0:16:26Her father was a vicar.
0:16:26 > 0:16:30But in the wealthier branches of the family, there were grander portraits,
0:16:30 > 0:16:34commissioned portraits being done during Jane Austen's lifetime.
0:16:34 > 0:16:38So, she would have been aware of other family members having portraits taken.
0:16:38 > 0:16:41You're seeing the democratisation of the portrait, aren't you?
0:16:41 > 0:16:45There are far more painters and painters move around the country.
0:16:45 > 0:16:48You wouldn't think somebody as grand as Joshua Reynolds
0:16:48 > 0:16:51started painting the local gentry and going around.
0:16:51 > 0:16:55There are a huge proliferation of portraits around that period.
0:16:55 > 0:17:01And then it reaches the inevitable crescendo - they invent photography.
0:17:01 > 0:17:05Regency portraits were so much more than status badges
0:17:05 > 0:17:10and portrait miniatures held a special place in British gentry men's and women's hearts.
0:17:10 > 0:17:12They were treasured possessions.
0:17:12 > 0:17:17Intimate and often startlingly lifelike keys to understanding
0:17:17 > 0:17:20and remembering who the sitter truly was.
0:17:20 > 0:17:24To sit for a top, leading London portrait miniaturist would be 30 guineas.
0:17:24 > 0:17:26Of course, to sit for an oil painting
0:17:26 > 0:17:29with a top oil painter would be 300 guineas.
0:17:29 > 0:17:31So, this is a major expense.
0:17:31 > 0:17:34That's why portraits are done for specific reasons -
0:17:34 > 0:17:39to celebrate children, for engagements, marriages, to go abroad.
0:17:39 > 0:17:44They're often in miniature because it could then be worn on the body by a loved one.
0:17:44 > 0:17:45The obvious analogy that come to mind
0:17:45 > 0:17:47is the photo on your phone.
0:17:47 > 0:17:49We all like to share images of new babies,
0:17:49 > 0:17:54of somebody's new fiance, someone who's abroad who we may not have seen for a while.
0:17:57 > 0:18:02So could the fact that there's no known portrait of Jane Austen in her lifetime,
0:18:02 > 0:18:04other than Cassandra's sketch,
0:18:04 > 0:18:09simply mean her family didn't think she was important enough to sit for one?
0:18:09 > 0:18:14Paula and I went to Chawton, where Jane and Cassandra lived,
0:18:14 > 0:18:18to see what we could find out about portraiture and the Austens.
0:18:20 > 0:18:22So, we've got family members here.
0:18:22 > 0:18:26We've got Rev George Austen, who is Dad, in the middle there.
0:18:26 > 0:18:30Then, to the left, James Austen, who was the eldest in the family.
0:18:30 > 0:18:35Francis Austen, who was between Cassandra and Jane in age.
0:18:35 > 0:18:37And then Charles, in fact, was the youngest.
0:18:37 > 0:18:41Are these definitely pictures from the Austen family?
0:18:41 > 0:18:44Yes. They've come down through the family and so...
0:18:44 > 0:18:47And we can trace the provenance so...authentic pictures.
0:18:47 > 0:18:53And why did pictures exist of the men in the family but not of Jane?
0:18:53 > 0:18:55I'm not sure we really know that.
0:18:55 > 0:19:00I mean, obviously, Charles and Francis has illustrious careers
0:19:00 > 0:19:03but yes, it is a bit of a puzzle, really.
0:19:03 > 0:19:07But then things have appeared or disappeared through the centuries.
0:19:07 > 0:19:11Perhaps you could help us with our puzzle. Paula, do you want to...?
0:19:11 > 0:19:17- Yes, I'd like to show you this... - OK. Right.- ..drawing on vellum
0:19:17 > 0:19:18of this young lady.
0:19:20 > 0:19:25My goodness, that's interesting, isn't it? Yeah.
0:19:25 > 0:19:30You can definitely trace a likeness there, can't you?
0:19:30 > 0:19:32It is quite good, isn't it?
0:19:32 > 0:19:36That is quite intriguing, I must admit.
0:19:36 > 0:19:39It's that nose, really, and the mouth,
0:19:39 > 0:19:43which I always think of as very distinguishing features of the Austens.
0:19:44 > 0:19:48- Oh, right, so who's this? - This is Edward, Lucky Edward,
0:19:48 > 0:19:52who's the one who was adopted by the rich Knight family.
0:19:52 > 0:19:57I wonder if I could bring my colleague in actually. Ann?
0:19:57 > 0:19:59Can I show you this portrait?
0:19:59 > 0:20:02Well...
0:20:02 > 0:20:03And your reaction?
0:20:03 > 0:20:07Right, my reaction... Well, it's wonderful.
0:20:08 > 0:20:12The long neck, which is in the portrait by Cassandra.
0:20:12 > 0:20:17But also the nose and eyebrow plateau is very alike.
0:20:17 > 0:20:23- It's familiar.- It's familiar, yeah. Very familiar.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26Does it matter if we know what she looks like?
0:20:26 > 0:20:30For no other reason than every other authoress
0:20:30 > 0:20:34before and after has probably got a portrait and Jane hasn't.
0:20:34 > 0:20:36She is so important.
0:20:36 > 0:20:41We wouldn't all be reading the books we're reading without this woman.
0:20:41 > 0:20:45Any of them. So it would be nice to put the box to the face.
0:20:49 > 0:20:53- I think I'll have a scone. - Go for it.
0:20:53 > 0:20:57If the woman in the picture does turn out to be Jane Austen,
0:20:57 > 0:21:00how would that change our view of her?
0:21:00 > 0:21:04It's quite a severe, strong face, isn't it?
0:21:04 > 0:21:07It's EXACTLY the view of Jane Austen that I have,
0:21:07 > 0:21:14which I think is very different to, perhaps, the view of cosy,
0:21:14 > 0:21:16demure spinster Jane
0:21:16 > 0:21:20who'll just occasionally write a few things here and there.
0:21:20 > 0:21:23- As a sideline?- As a sideline and just to keep the family amused.
0:21:23 > 0:21:28When I look at that face, I see that feisty, professional woman
0:21:28 > 0:21:32who doesn't write twee little novels. A sort of frocks and smocks.
0:21:32 > 0:21:35- It's slightly patronising. - It's very patronising. And it makes me cross
0:21:35 > 0:21:38because that's not the Jane Austen that I know and love.
0:21:39 > 0:21:41But it was clear to me,
0:21:41 > 0:21:45looking out from the Cassandra's Cup cafe in Chawton,
0:21:45 > 0:21:49that if Paula was ever to upturn the heritage version of Jane Austen,
0:21:49 > 0:21:54she's going to need a lot more than a hunch about family resemblance.
0:21:54 > 0:21:59Could we be more objective about similarities between Paula's portrait
0:21:59 > 0:22:03and the reliably attested ones of Jane's brothers?
0:22:03 > 0:22:08Frank, James, Charles, Edward and her clergyman father George.
0:22:12 > 0:22:17The recent riots might present a very different vision of life from the one in Austen's novels
0:22:17 > 0:22:24but could the techniques used to identify the looters from scenes of CCTV footage have a bearing here?
0:22:24 > 0:22:30David Anley specialises in forensic facial recognition techniques in criminal cases.
0:22:30 > 0:22:33He agreed to apply those techniques to Paula's picture
0:22:33 > 0:22:37and to those of the Austen family from Chawton Cottage.
0:22:37 > 0:22:41If we were in a court of law, which is your normal job,
0:22:41 > 0:22:43what would you say in answer to the question,
0:22:43 > 0:22:48"Could the woman in the picture be related to the Jane Austen family?"
0:22:48 > 0:22:52I've cropped all the images of all the subjects
0:22:52 > 0:22:57and put together an arrangement of the noses here.
0:22:59 > 0:23:01- Wow!- And you can see that,
0:23:01 > 0:23:04considering we're looking at six different subjects,
0:23:04 > 0:23:08I would say that the artists have portrayed the noses
0:23:08 > 0:23:10in a strikingly similar manner.
0:23:10 > 0:23:14Looking at the rest of the face,
0:23:14 > 0:23:17do you see similarities there or differences?
0:23:17 > 0:23:21There is a similar broad similarity in, for example,
0:23:21 > 0:23:23the shape of the eyes.
0:23:23 > 0:23:26- Oh gosh.- Overall.- Goodness me.
0:23:26 > 0:23:30But it has to be said that Jane's eyes are not symmetrical,
0:23:30 > 0:23:34which is not really the case with any of the others.
0:23:34 > 0:23:36I suppose the overall question is
0:23:36 > 0:23:42is there a feature that might be described as a family trait
0:23:42 > 0:23:47which is in some way striking and shared by all of them?
0:23:47 > 0:23:53And I think the answer is yes, there is - the nose is strikingly similar.
0:23:53 > 0:23:55Nor do I find amongst the other features
0:23:55 > 0:24:00anything sufficiently varied in its appearance
0:24:00 > 0:24:06as to suggest the lack of any familial connections.
0:24:06 > 0:24:09So, Paula, what do you draw from this?
0:24:09 > 0:24:15Well, I think if I were to believe Deirdre Le Faye that it's an imaginary portrait,
0:24:15 > 0:24:18how could somebody have a nose
0:24:18 > 0:24:21like every other member of the family
0:24:21 > 0:24:23if it was just from the imagination?
0:24:23 > 0:24:28It strikes me as rather sad that the family didn't think
0:24:28 > 0:24:31she was sufficiently important enough
0:24:31 > 0:24:34to merit her own miniature, her own portrait.
0:24:34 > 0:24:37These were the brothers, they were the important ones.
0:24:37 > 0:24:41But they weren't the important members of the family. SHE was.
0:24:43 > 0:24:47Dr Eastaugh has now completed his analysis of Paula's portrait.
0:24:50 > 0:24:54I feel really nervous about this trip back.
0:24:54 > 0:24:56It's almost as if I've had sleepless nights.
0:24:56 > 0:24:58I'm really worried about the zinc white.
0:24:58 > 0:25:01That's the thing that I'm anxious about
0:25:01 > 0:25:04because he mentioned this thing about zinc white
0:25:04 > 0:25:08being something that was used in the later part of the 19th century.
0:25:08 > 0:25:11For the portrait to be Jane Austen,
0:25:11 > 0:25:14Paula needs to prove that it was done in the writer's lifetime,
0:25:14 > 0:25:19and the presence of zinc white would make that impossible.
0:25:19 > 0:25:24Austen's novels weren't published under her name until 1818, a year after her death.
0:25:24 > 0:25:27And she wasn't well known to the general public until 1897,
0:25:27 > 0:25:32when her nephew's memoir was published, illustrated by the Andrews portrait.
0:25:32 > 0:25:35So if Paula's portrait predates 1870,
0:25:35 > 0:25:39that makes it less likely to have been cooked up later by a fan.
0:25:41 > 0:25:46The really key stuff from your perspective is from the material analysis.
0:25:46 > 0:25:47Is it zinc white, do we know?
0:25:47 > 0:25:50It's not zinc white, that's the key thing.
0:25:50 > 0:25:55There was another pigment they used earlier in the 19th century, which is barium sulphate.
0:25:55 > 0:25:56It had various names.
0:25:56 > 0:25:59One of the more common ones was constant white,
0:25:59 > 0:26:01and this is what you've got here.
0:26:01 > 0:26:04You have the barium sulphate white pigment.
0:26:04 > 0:26:10Goodness me! This is, just to clarify, the white bits we can see on the lace and on the headband.
0:26:10 > 0:26:12That's correct.
0:26:12 > 0:26:14Do we have a date for that?
0:26:14 > 0:26:16Yes, that's absolutely key.
0:26:16 > 0:26:22So this is an early mention from 1811 of constant white.
0:26:22 > 0:26:24This is 1869.
0:26:24 > 0:26:27Constant white is nearly out of use.
0:26:27 > 0:26:291869. Oh, my goodness me.
0:26:29 > 0:26:33Chinese or zinc white having almost superseded it.
0:26:33 > 0:26:36So we've given you a time frame for this.
0:26:36 > 0:26:38Oh, my gosh, that is so exciting.
0:26:38 > 0:26:46So the white pigment used on the portrait suggests a dating of between 1811 and 1869.
0:26:46 > 0:26:49But what about the "Miss Jane Austin" on the back?
0:26:49 > 0:26:53Could it have been added at a later date?
0:26:53 > 0:26:59What we do know is the inscription appears to be one of the earlier sorts of ink,
0:26:59 > 0:27:01so we know it's got a bit of iron in it,
0:27:01 > 0:27:08and these iron tannate inks would be what you would expect in the first part of the 19th century.
0:27:11 > 0:27:15There's another way of checking whether a picture is fake,
0:27:15 > 0:27:17and that's through the fashion of the time.
0:27:17 > 0:27:22The historical accuracy of what the sitter is wearing can give the game away.
0:27:22 > 0:27:28Hilary Davidson is an expert on dress in the regency period.
0:27:30 > 0:27:31Oh, wow.
0:27:36 > 0:27:38Wow!
0:27:42 > 0:27:44It's the right date.
0:27:44 > 0:27:48It's definitely within her lifetime.
0:27:48 > 0:27:50There's a high waist here.
0:27:50 > 0:27:56By the end of the 1810s, the waist starts dropping again to become the low waist of the 1820s.
0:27:56 > 0:28:01The detail of the sleeve head here is very much of its period.
0:28:01 > 0:28:06There is one piece of clothing which has very strong provenance as having belonged to Jane Austen.
0:28:06 > 0:28:10It's dated to about 1812 or '14.
0:28:10 > 0:28:13I've taken a pattern from it and really looked at Jane's figure type.
0:28:13 > 0:28:16The sleeve head and the way it's pleated here
0:28:16 > 0:28:22- is very, very similar to this garment that has a strong connection with Jane.- Really?
0:28:22 > 0:28:26But did people really just change fashion so quickly?
0:28:26 > 0:28:31I mean, wouldn't they have hung on to clothes maybe ten years after they were in the height of fashion?
0:28:31 > 0:28:36Not so far as ten years. There is a slight lag,
0:28:36 > 0:28:42and Jane herself is known to have been very punctilious about her clothing.
0:28:42 > 0:28:48She liked clothing. She kept herself neat and sort of up-to-date.
0:28:48 > 0:28:52She wasn't fashionable but she certainly wasn't out of fashion.
0:28:52 > 0:28:56She's wearing a cap, which Jane was known to do.
0:28:56 > 0:29:00She commented in one of her letters that it saves on hairdressing,
0:29:00 > 0:29:10so everything about this ensemble bespeaks what we know of Jane's social milieu and her personal taste.
0:29:10 > 0:29:17It's absolutely right for an older woman of the middle class, in the middle of the 1810s.
0:29:17 > 0:29:25Some of the physical descriptions that we have of her suggest that she was very slender and tall.
0:29:25 > 0:29:30Are there any clues at all that that is a tall, thin, slender woman?
0:29:30 > 0:29:31I think there is.
0:29:31 > 0:29:35Where I would put that is in the proportion between the shoulders and the head.
0:29:35 > 0:29:38She's got very narrow shoulders,
0:29:38 > 0:29:43and the head is quite large in relation to the breadth of the shoulders there,
0:29:43 > 0:29:50and this tallies with what can be gleaned from the Hampshire pelisse coat.
0:29:50 > 0:29:53So it's an outer garment that's made of silk.
0:29:53 > 0:29:56Taking the measurements from that,
0:29:56 > 0:30:01you get a woman who is very tall and slender for her time.
0:30:01 > 0:30:04If the average height of a woman was about 5'5",
0:30:04 > 0:30:08which we can determine from skeletal records,
0:30:08 > 0:30:11it looks like Jane could've been as tall as 5'8".
0:30:11 > 0:30:14But not only that, she was very slender.
0:30:14 > 0:30:17If the measurements from the pelisse coat are right,
0:30:17 > 0:30:20she was skinnier than Kate Moss.
0:30:20 > 0:30:24Would it be possible for somebody who was making a fake picture
0:30:24 > 0:30:27to look back at the fashion of the times and think,
0:30:27 > 0:30:30"Right, I'm going to put this picture
0:30:30 > 0:30:32"within Jane Austen's lifetime
0:30:32 > 0:30:35"and just make sure I get the fashion details correct"?
0:30:35 > 0:30:39It's very, very, very difficult to do.
0:30:39 > 0:30:44It's far harder to fake a dress than it is to fake a picture,
0:30:44 > 0:30:48but nothing about this portrait reads as wrong to me.
0:30:48 > 0:30:53This is absolutely 1814, 1816, based on the dress.
0:30:55 > 0:30:58But if the case for Paula's portrait
0:30:58 > 0:31:00being done in Austen's lifetime is building,
0:31:00 > 0:31:03its provenance - that's the story of how it came down to us -
0:31:03 > 0:31:06looks to be a dead end.
0:31:06 > 0:31:11Until Anna de Goguel's son gives Paula and unexpected lead.
0:31:13 > 0:31:15- Does it ring any bells?- Not at all.
0:31:15 > 0:31:19- Do you know that it belonged to your mother at one point?- No, I didn't.
0:31:19 > 0:31:22Your mother did sell it to a man called Roy Davids,
0:31:22 > 0:31:24who's had it for 30 years.
0:31:24 > 0:31:27And he had this letter from your mother.
0:31:28 > 0:31:31Oh, well, this explains everything.
0:31:31 > 0:31:32What can you tell us?
0:31:32 > 0:31:40She was executrix of an estate of a man called John Foster.
0:31:40 > 0:31:44John Foster was an extraordinary figure.
0:31:44 > 0:31:46He was an international lawyer, he was a QC,
0:31:46 > 0:31:48he was a human-rights lawyer,
0:31:48 > 0:31:50a member of parliament for about 30 years.
0:31:50 > 0:31:54- Gosh.- He died in January or February of '82,
0:31:54 > 0:31:57so this must be his estate.
0:31:57 > 0:32:01That was his address, his chambers in The Temple.
0:32:01 > 0:32:02Goodness me.
0:32:02 > 0:32:05- So I think she was disposing of his estate.- Really?
0:32:05 > 0:32:07So that's why I've never seen the picture.
0:32:07 > 0:32:10Well, that's a mystery solved.
0:32:10 > 0:32:13Paula has succeeded in tracing the history of her picture
0:32:13 > 0:32:16back to the early 1980s, to Sir John Foster,
0:32:16 > 0:32:20who was Conservative MP for Northwich in Cheshire.
0:32:20 > 0:32:23But with him, for the time being at least,
0:32:23 > 0:32:24the trail goes cold.
0:32:24 > 0:32:27Perhaps someone watching this programme knows more.
0:32:30 > 0:32:31There's no paper trail
0:32:31 > 0:32:34linking Paula's portrait to Jane Austen
0:32:34 > 0:32:39and the story of how it came to light remains murky at best.
0:32:39 > 0:32:41But Paula has at least established
0:32:41 > 0:32:46that it depicts a woman writing in around 1812 to 1815.
0:32:46 > 0:32:49What she needs to do now is to enlist the help of art historians,
0:32:49 > 0:32:52to try to understand the circumstances
0:32:52 > 0:32:56in which her portrait might have been produced.
0:33:02 > 0:33:04- What is it?- It's a drawing.
0:33:04 > 0:33:08- Is it a miniature? - It's not a miniature,
0:33:08 > 0:33:09it's a portrait drawing.
0:33:09 > 0:33:15Date-wise it's somewhere between 1805 and 1815.
0:33:15 > 0:33:21- OK.- I mean, honestly, I'd put these on for 15th-century manuscripts,
0:33:21 > 0:33:25but for an amateur, crummy...
0:33:25 > 0:33:28Regency piece of nothing...
0:33:28 > 0:33:30I mean, come on, this is ridiculous.
0:33:30 > 0:33:34Paula's portrait uses a technique called plumbago,
0:33:34 > 0:33:37which involves delicate lead pencil marks on vellum,
0:33:37 > 0:33:39that is, abortive calfskin.
0:33:39 > 0:33:43Artist Susan Monk still works in the medium.
0:33:43 > 0:33:48I'm quite impressed with the buildings in the background.
0:33:48 > 0:33:50I'd say that someone's maybe
0:33:50 > 0:33:53a little bit more interested in the buildings
0:33:53 > 0:33:55than they were in the portrait.
0:33:58 > 0:34:03It gives it a slightly historical feel, doesn't it?
0:34:03 > 0:34:06Quite flattering, which I don't mind at all, I can tell you!
0:34:06 > 0:34:09But the use of vellum in Paula's portrait
0:34:09 > 0:34:11perplexes the art historians.
0:34:11 > 0:34:16Vellum goes out of fashion, really, as a support,
0:34:16 > 0:34:18really, in the early 18th century.
0:34:18 > 0:34:22I mean, 99.9% of portrait drawings of this date,
0:34:22 > 0:34:26the early 19th century, would be drawn on paper.
0:34:26 > 0:34:29So this might be deliberately old-fashioned.
0:34:29 > 0:34:33And the plumbago technique itself proves every bit as puzzling.
0:34:33 > 0:34:38I'm not quite sure what you'd call it,
0:34:38 > 0:34:43because technically, lead on vellum, you would usually think,
0:34:43 > 0:34:45"That equals a plumbago", but not from this period.
0:34:45 > 0:34:48The plumbago portrait...
0:34:48 > 0:34:53Gosh, by about 1720 they were completely out of fashion.
0:34:55 > 0:34:58That is your typical plumbago miniature.
0:34:58 > 0:35:00That's why yours is so unusual,
0:35:00 > 0:35:03because it's 100 years out of fashion.
0:35:05 > 0:35:09And the composition of the image raises further questions.
0:35:09 > 0:35:14It's giving her a kind of grandeur, isn't it?
0:35:14 > 0:35:16Which is beyond the world of...
0:35:16 > 0:35:19More belongs to the world of Catherine de Bourgh.
0:35:19 > 0:35:21From Pride And Prejudice.
0:35:21 > 0:35:23Tassels and cathedrals in the background.
0:35:23 > 0:35:26The column and the curtain behind
0:35:26 > 0:35:30are very much part of a standard tradition in portraiture
0:35:30 > 0:35:34going back to Van Dyke in the early 17th century.
0:35:34 > 0:35:36You can see the drapery and the column.
0:35:36 > 0:35:43In some ways you have the basics of the composition of your drawing.
0:35:43 > 0:35:48But it's the execution of some of the details in the portrait
0:35:48 > 0:35:52which gives Paula a lead as to the kind of artist she should be looking for.
0:35:52 > 0:35:54Her arm is very, very long.
0:35:54 > 0:35:57Somebody with artistic training in an academy
0:35:57 > 0:35:59probably wouldn't make those sort of mistakes
0:35:59 > 0:36:01because it's absolutely drummed in.
0:36:01 > 0:36:04Always a telltale sign with amateur artists
0:36:04 > 0:36:08is that the head doesn't really fit onto the body particularly well.
0:36:08 > 0:36:11That cat's quite weakly done. It's a very charming detail.
0:36:11 > 0:36:15It doesn't sit on the table particularly happily.
0:36:15 > 0:36:17But if it is an amateur artist,
0:36:17 > 0:36:22he or she has certainly received lessons from a professional artist.
0:36:22 > 0:36:26It feels as though she knows the artist particularly well
0:36:26 > 0:36:31so it could be a friend or a member of the family.
0:36:31 > 0:36:34Almost as if the artist has walked into the room
0:36:34 > 0:36:37and, "We've got nothing to do this morning
0:36:37 > 0:36:39"and I've got this bit of vellum.
0:36:39 > 0:36:43"You carry on with your writing and I'll sketch you while you do that."
0:36:43 > 0:36:48I would doubt whether it was the work of a professional painter.
0:36:48 > 0:36:52There was a huge proliferation of portraiture in that period
0:36:52 > 0:36:55and you get the emergence of the lady watercolourist
0:36:55 > 0:36:57and the lady who does...
0:36:57 > 0:37:00Cassandra was already sketching by the mid-Victorian period.
0:37:00 > 0:37:05They're all sitting there in droves, painting flowers like no tomorrow.
0:37:05 > 0:37:09It's very, very difficult work of art to pigeonhole, actually.
0:37:09 > 0:37:14I can't tell you how few miniatures on vellum,
0:37:14 > 0:37:17let alone in a sort of plumbago-style technique,
0:37:17 > 0:37:19I've seen from around 1815.
0:37:19 > 0:37:23There's something almost a bit obsessive about this drawing.
0:37:23 > 0:37:25It's so heavily stippled and so heavily worked.
0:37:25 > 0:37:30There's a grandeur implied with the column and the velvet curtain
0:37:30 > 0:37:34which are totally at odds with the very domestic sleeping cat.
0:37:34 > 0:37:37What is significant are the buildings in the background.
0:37:37 > 0:37:42If you can pin those down... That's clearly significant to the sitter.
0:37:42 > 0:37:45You can see a little of this.
0:37:45 > 0:37:51The clues may point to Paula's portrait being drawn by a moderately talented amateur
0:37:51 > 0:37:53but there are still many questions.
0:37:55 > 0:37:58It's a baffling mix of the intimate and the formal,
0:37:58 > 0:38:02the domestic and the grand, the clumsy and the accomplished.
0:38:02 > 0:38:05But then Paula makes a breakthrough
0:38:05 > 0:38:08which will send her research in a radically new direction.
0:38:08 > 0:38:11Can we go in quite close to the building?
0:38:13 > 0:38:16It's the gothic architecture in the background
0:38:16 > 0:38:18that provides the crucial clue.
0:38:18 > 0:38:21Here we have got the northern end
0:38:21 > 0:38:24of the north tower of the abbey itself.
0:38:24 > 0:38:30And peeping out behind it - it's pretty accurate -
0:38:30 > 0:38:32- is St Margaret's.- It really is.
0:38:32 > 0:38:34and in spite of the scaffolding on the top
0:38:34 > 0:38:37you can see the distinctive wood on the top.
0:38:37 > 0:38:43There is the square belfry window, there's the clock underneath
0:38:43 > 0:38:46and the two little windows below that.
0:38:46 > 0:38:49It's representing St Margaret's and the edge of Westminster Abbey.
0:38:49 > 0:38:54- This is evidently... - Are you SURE that that is what we're looking at here?
0:38:54 > 0:38:56Oh, the identification is 100% certain.
0:38:56 > 0:39:00The fact that Paula's portrait depicts Westminster Abbey
0:39:00 > 0:39:02and St Margaret's Church
0:39:02 > 0:39:06doesn't prove the sitter sat in front of a window with this particular view behind her.
0:39:06 > 0:39:08Typically, the view would be added later,
0:39:08 > 0:39:11with the sitter not necessarily even present.
0:39:11 > 0:39:16Would you say it's more specific than a generalised "Oh, she's from a clerical family"?
0:39:16 > 0:39:18Oh, I'm sure it's specific, yes.
0:39:18 > 0:39:21It connect her with this particular building.
0:39:21 > 0:39:22One of these two buildings.
0:39:25 > 0:39:29Buildings in Regency portraits are rarely plonked in at random,
0:39:29 > 0:39:34and almost always have a meaning for either the artist or the sitter.
0:39:34 > 0:39:40If the painter was trying to make a connection with the literary figures in the abbey,
0:39:40 > 0:39:42he would have taken something different.
0:39:42 > 0:39:45The most prominent thing here is St Margaret's.
0:39:47 > 0:39:50But what does that London setting mean for Paula's theory?
0:39:50 > 0:39:54We think of Jane Austen spending her days in a Hampshire cottage
0:39:54 > 0:39:59but, in fact, in the years 1813-'15 -
0:39:59 > 0:40:01the period to which the costume dates the sitter -
0:40:01 > 0:40:05she did spend time in London, staying with her brother Henry.
0:40:05 > 0:40:09This is where Jane Austen stayed. We're in the heart of the West End.
0:40:09 > 0:40:14It's a thriving, bustling place, there's theatres around.
0:40:14 > 0:40:17It does feel a million miles away from Chawton.
0:40:17 > 0:40:24There's a lovely letter where Jane Austen is back in London in May 1813,
0:40:24 > 0:40:27where she's been visiting a big painting exhibition.
0:40:27 > 0:40:30She's driving around in her brother's open carriage and says,
0:40:30 > 0:40:35"I liked my solitary elegance very much and was ready to laugh all the time
0:40:35 > 0:40:39"at my being where I was - parading about London in a barouche."
0:40:41 > 0:40:44Time spent in the capital notwithstanding,
0:40:44 > 0:40:48is it really plausible that a supposedly domestic Hampshire auntie
0:40:48 > 0:40:55would have chosen to be depicted in front of grand ecclesiastical buildings in central London?
0:40:55 > 0:41:01Jane Austen was far from being the only woman writing in Regency Britain.
0:41:01 > 0:41:04How were other women authors painted at the time?
0:41:04 > 0:41:06Oh, my goodness!
0:41:07 > 0:41:09Well, I never.
0:41:10 > 0:41:13I don't know what to make of it.
0:41:15 > 0:41:19She's depicted in the way that...
0:41:19 > 0:41:21a number of other women are depicted
0:41:21 > 0:41:23and that is in that act of inspiration.
0:41:23 > 0:41:28So, she is writing like the Hannah More painting
0:41:28 > 0:41:30but she's also looking. She's in thought.
0:41:30 > 0:41:34Usually, the aim was to show the writer in the pose of inspiration.
0:41:34 > 0:41:36You know, thinking.
0:41:36 > 0:41:40Sometimes with their own book that they might have casually...
0:41:40 > 0:41:43"I'm just half-thinking, half-discursing,
0:41:43 > 0:41:45"and I'll just flick at my book for a moment."
0:41:45 > 0:41:48Or, if you're a very successful author,
0:41:48 > 0:41:54you've got your pile of books and look there like that.
0:41:54 > 0:41:56Writing, in the early 18th century,
0:41:56 > 0:42:00had been very much a disreputable activity for women to engage in.
0:42:00 > 0:42:03There's an association between writing for money
0:42:03 > 0:42:05and selling yourself.
0:42:05 > 0:42:08But round about the second half of the 18th century
0:42:08 > 0:42:10it became respectable,
0:42:10 > 0:42:14it became something that a proper woman would do.
0:42:14 > 0:42:15It didn't bring scandal to her.
0:42:15 > 0:42:20But the novel always attracted a kind of condescension
0:42:20 > 0:42:22or sometimes a moral panic.
0:42:22 > 0:42:25Looking at Jane Austen herself, do you think
0:42:25 > 0:42:29she would have wanted to have been portrayed as a writer in this way?
0:42:29 > 0:42:30Hmm, it's a tricky question.
0:42:30 > 0:42:32When she was writing it at Chawton,
0:42:32 > 0:42:36she would put her papers away if any stranger came in.
0:42:36 > 0:42:40She was quite happy for her family members to know she was writing
0:42:40 > 0:42:44but if somebody knocked on the door that she didn't know, she would hide the paper.
0:42:44 > 0:42:48Do you think it would have been out of character for Jane Austen
0:42:48 > 0:42:49to have a portrait done?
0:42:49 > 0:42:52No, I do not. I do not at all.
0:42:52 > 0:42:58She was a bold, amusing, lively, fun-loving person
0:42:58 > 0:43:00and I can't see any reason why
0:43:00 > 0:43:03she would withdraw from view.
0:43:03 > 0:43:08I think she was very proud of her status as the author
0:43:08 > 0:43:12and very proud of being a novelist.
0:43:12 > 0:43:17Most of Austen's letters were destroyed by Cassandra after she died.
0:43:17 > 0:43:19But, in the 160 or so which survive,
0:43:19 > 0:43:24there's the occasional glimpse of Austen's own feelings about portraiture.
0:43:24 > 0:43:28On the 3rd November, 1813,
0:43:28 > 0:43:32Austen wrote from London after visiting a portrait exhibition,
0:43:32 > 0:43:36"I do not despair of having my picture in the exhibition at last,
0:43:36 > 0:43:39"all white and red with my head on one side."
0:43:39 > 0:43:42She loved going to portrait exhibitions
0:43:42 > 0:43:48and it was after one of those visits that she was able to speak.
0:43:48 > 0:43:51Is it jocularly? Is it wistfully?
0:43:51 > 0:43:54She brings to her lips and on to the page
0:43:54 > 0:43:59the possibility that there's a portrait of her that could be there.
0:43:59 > 0:44:04This looks to me like quite a formal lady who is adopting
0:44:04 > 0:44:11a sort of official position and presenting herself to the world.
0:44:11 > 0:44:14But that's not what Jane Austen was like, at all.
0:44:16 > 0:44:20You can't imagine the woman who writes about having to give doses of rhubarb
0:44:20 > 0:44:23and cook the mutton posing like that.
0:44:23 > 0:44:28If there was ever a period in Jane Austen's life
0:44:28 > 0:44:32when she might have covertly sat for a portrait,
0:44:32 > 0:44:35I think it's very likely to have been between October
0:44:35 > 0:44:37and December of 1815.
0:44:37 > 0:44:44That was because she went to London on 3rd or 4th October
0:44:44 > 0:44:46to negotiate with her new publishers.
0:44:46 > 0:44:48Her brother suddenly falls very ill
0:44:48 > 0:44:51and she ends up staying for almost three months.
0:44:51 > 0:44:53And I think there's a real sea change.
0:44:53 > 0:44:54There's a confidence about her.
0:44:54 > 0:44:57She suddenly feels that she's made it.
0:44:59 > 0:45:03Here we are. The inner sanctum of the John Murray publishing house.
0:45:03 > 0:45:05With the library and drawing room.
0:45:05 > 0:45:08- Beautiful room. - Is this largest in the room?
0:45:08 > 0:45:11- This is Jane Austen's publisher. - This is John Murray II.
0:45:11 > 0:45:14Who she called an amiable rogue.
0:45:14 > 0:45:18She must have felt very proud to have been part of this publishing house
0:45:18 > 0:45:21because John Murray was so famous and revered
0:45:21 > 0:45:26and because he had people like Lord Byron - literary figures that she admired.
0:45:27 > 0:45:31Do you think he was taking a bit of a risk, a gamble, in taking on Jane Austen?
0:45:31 > 0:45:34Well, Murray actually took no risk at all.
0:45:34 > 0:45:37He wanted to. He made an offer to Jane Austen.
0:45:37 > 0:45:40Jane Austen said, "No. I think they'll do better than you expect
0:45:40 > 0:45:42"and I'll publish on commission."
0:45:42 > 0:45:44So she is confident.
0:45:44 > 0:45:46She is feeling this sense of,
0:45:46 > 0:45:50"I'm going to take control of my business affairs."
0:45:50 > 0:45:53Paula has come to Austen's publisher to try to solve the mystery
0:45:53 > 0:45:56of the inscription on the back of the portrait.
0:45:56 > 0:46:00If it is Jane, why is the name spelt "Austin" with an I?
0:46:00 > 0:46:04A hunt through the archive of the author's financial transactions
0:46:04 > 0:46:06yields a fascinating revelation.
0:46:06 > 0:46:10I was just intrigued to see what you think about this.
0:46:10 > 0:46:15- So here we have...- Yes, this is a cheque in the John Murray archive.
0:46:15 > 0:46:18- So, we've seen this a lot.- So, it's "Austin" with an I, isn't it?
0:46:18 > 0:46:21An I rather than an E.
0:46:23 > 0:46:26The other thing I really wanted to ask you about
0:46:26 > 0:46:30was whether you thought the counter signature was in her hand.
0:46:30 > 0:46:33She's got quite a distinctive hand.
0:46:33 > 0:46:35If you look at the J and the A,
0:46:35 > 0:46:38I would argue that that's Jane Austen's handwriting.
0:46:38 > 0:46:40So why does she spell it with an I?
0:46:40 > 0:46:42She was keen to get the money.
0:46:42 > 0:46:47She's earning money from her own pen, which she longed to do.
0:46:48 > 0:46:50And it wouldn't surprise me
0:46:50 > 0:46:53if she sat for her portrait and didn't tell anybody.
0:46:53 > 0:46:57That's brilliant. There she is in print for the first time.
0:46:57 > 0:47:00It's terribly poignant because on the one hand
0:47:00 > 0:47:03Jane Austen is at her most creative.
0:47:04 > 0:47:08She is flying high but she hasn't got long to live.
0:47:08 > 0:47:11Within two years of this time when she's feeling so good
0:47:11 > 0:47:13and confident about herself,
0:47:13 > 0:47:16she will have had a lingering illness, she will be dead
0:47:16 > 0:47:19and she will have sunk back into obscurity
0:47:19 > 0:47:24and within a few years of her death, her novels will be out of print.
0:47:26 > 0:47:31Before Paula presents her findings to a panel of Austen experts,
0:47:31 > 0:47:36she needs to counter one major argument against her theory.
0:47:36 > 0:47:39If Austen did sit for a portrait,
0:47:39 > 0:47:42why didn't her family know anything about it?
0:47:42 > 0:47:46While not claiming that she's identified the artist,
0:47:46 > 0:47:49Paula feels she's found a possible answer
0:47:49 > 0:47:51from Austen's wider social circle.
0:47:51 > 0:47:55I found some journals from a family called the Chutes.
0:47:55 > 0:47:59Now, Eliza Chute consistently misspells Austen.
0:47:59 > 0:48:02There's not a single occasion where she spells with an E.
0:48:02 > 0:48:05And then I found... It was a heart-stopping moment
0:48:05 > 0:48:07because I discovered to my shock
0:48:07 > 0:48:10that she was married in St Margaret's Church.
0:48:10 > 0:48:14It was her parish church. She lived in Great George Street
0:48:14 > 0:48:18so the view in our portrait would have been her view.
0:48:18 > 0:48:20Not only that,
0:48:20 > 0:48:24but I also discovered that she was a very gifted amateur painter.
0:48:33 > 0:48:36It wasn't exactly Elizabeth Bennet going to Pemberley
0:48:36 > 0:48:40but Chawton was the big house in Jane Austen's world.
0:48:41 > 0:48:44Thank you.
0:48:44 > 0:48:46Well, this is the big day, the great debate.
0:48:46 > 0:48:48I'm feeling really excited.
0:48:48 > 0:48:50A little but nervous but mainly excited.
0:48:50 > 0:48:52I'm really looking forward to it.
0:48:52 > 0:48:57Chawton belonged to her brother, Edward, who'd been adopted by rich cousins.
0:48:57 > 0:49:02That's why we've picked this historic venue imbued with so many memories
0:49:02 > 0:49:07to bring together three pre-eminent scholars of the Austen world
0:49:07 > 0:49:12to this very dining table where Jane would have sat with her family.
0:49:12 > 0:49:15I imagine her walking up this long path
0:49:15 > 0:49:18from her little cottage in Chawton,
0:49:18 > 0:49:21perhaps being called upon to do babysitting duties,
0:49:21 > 0:49:24which she, frankly, quite resented.
0:49:24 > 0:49:27And I think about her taking that long walk
0:49:27 > 0:49:30and very much feeling the poor relation.
0:49:32 > 0:49:34Paula now faces three of the people
0:49:34 > 0:49:37who know more about Jane Austen than anyone else on the planet.
0:49:37 > 0:49:39It's quite tiny, isn't it?
0:49:39 > 0:49:42Professor Kathryn Sutherland of Oxford University,
0:49:42 > 0:49:44Professor Claudia Johnson of Princeton
0:49:44 > 0:49:47and the formidable Deirdre Le Faye.
0:49:47 > 0:49:49It's delicate.
0:49:52 > 0:49:55I'm sure we'll have a lively discussion.
0:49:55 > 0:49:58- I like the curled-up moggy on the table.- Yes.
0:49:58 > 0:50:02What did we learn from the fashion historian?
0:50:02 > 0:50:06She dated the dress firmly 1812-'15.
0:50:06 > 0:50:10Yes, but you may have fashion spot on one year
0:50:10 > 0:50:13but that's not to say you don't keep your dress
0:50:13 > 0:50:15and wear it for several years after, is it?
0:50:15 > 0:50:18If you sit for your portrait, you wear your dress.
0:50:18 > 0:50:23- Your best dress.- You don't go and get something out of your wardrobe that's two or three years old.
0:50:23 > 0:50:24It just doesn't happen.
0:50:24 > 0:50:29It might happen in a family who are not very well off, like the Austens.
0:50:29 > 0:50:34- But she notices, doesn't she, that, in 1815, long sleeves are bang in. - Yeah. She notices.
0:50:34 > 0:50:35It is worth noting
0:50:35 > 0:50:39that in that period Jane Austen has more money
0:50:39 > 0:50:41than at any other time in her life.
0:50:41 > 0:50:44- 1813-'15, you have her shopping in Bond Street.- She shops.
0:50:44 > 0:50:46Gloves on, ladies.
0:50:55 > 0:50:59The inscription on the back triggers a lively response.
0:50:59 > 0:51:04Why is it spelt AustIN? Totally, totally wrong.
0:51:04 > 0:51:08Couldn't have been done by family, couldn't have been done by friends.
0:51:08 > 0:51:11- And why is that? - Because the name is AustEN.
0:51:11 > 0:51:14- Would any of her friends call her "Austin" with an I?- No.
0:51:14 > 0:51:19So, in her time, she's called AustIN by Eliza Chute, Elizabeth Lee,
0:51:19 > 0:51:22the Countess Of Morley, Mrs Mosley
0:51:22 > 0:51:24and John Murray on the royalty cheque.
0:51:24 > 0:51:28- So, again, "Miss Jane AustIN." - That's the more normal spelling.
0:51:28 > 0:51:33But, Deirdre, in Eliza Chute's journals, she always, always spells "Austin" with an I.
0:51:33 > 0:51:36Yeah, but she didn't know them very well. They didn't like her.
0:51:36 > 0:51:39- James is there every single week. - I dare say, but...
0:51:39 > 0:51:42And she calls him "Austin", always with an I.
0:51:42 > 0:51:45But it's Paula's theory about the family resemblances
0:51:45 > 0:51:48which provokes the most heated exchanges.
0:51:48 > 0:51:53- Oh, the noses!- The Austen nose. - Tell me what you think.
0:51:53 > 0:51:56Louise Ann specifically said she had a small nose.
0:51:56 > 0:51:59No way could you call that portrait as having a small nose.
0:51:59 > 0:52:04- You know this so well. Do you see a family resemblance?- No.
0:52:04 > 0:52:06- I do.- I do.- I don't.
0:52:06 > 0:52:09I think the plains of the face, the eyebrows,
0:52:09 > 0:52:11the relationship between the eyebrows,
0:52:11 > 0:52:14the shape of the eyes and the length of the nose.
0:52:14 > 0:52:17The length of the nose. Yes, exactly.
0:52:17 > 0:52:19I wonder if small could just mean narrow.
0:52:19 > 0:52:21If you were making up a picture of Jane Austen,
0:52:21 > 0:52:25I don't think you would specify this particular nose.
0:52:25 > 0:52:27Whatever this nose is, it's not generic.
0:52:27 > 0:52:31If you want to look at Cassandra's portrait,
0:52:31 > 0:52:33these noses are not dissimilar.
0:52:33 > 0:52:39There is something else and that is the decided asymmetry of the eyes.
0:52:39 > 0:52:43This has it too. That may be Cassandra's bad drawing.
0:52:45 > 0:52:48Deirdre, why don't you see the family resemblance?
0:52:48 > 0:52:53I think it's too far away from the James Andrews miniature.
0:52:53 > 0:52:56Oh, Deirdre, that makes me completely critified.
0:52:56 > 0:52:59- Wait a minute.- That is... Oh, no!
0:52:59 > 0:53:03The James Andrews miniature was cooked up from Cassandra's sketch
0:53:03 > 0:53:09and it was certified in a sense by these three, Anna, Caroline
0:53:09 > 0:53:14- and James Edward.- Yes, but. - He said it didn't look like her!
0:53:14 > 0:53:16They said it looked reasonably enough like her
0:53:16 > 0:53:18to be presented to the public.
0:53:18 > 0:53:19No, I can't abide that one
0:53:19 > 0:53:23because that, to me, is everything that's bad about Jane Austen.
0:53:23 > 0:53:25It's prettified, it's airbrushed.
0:53:25 > 0:53:30It makes her look demure, dim and prim and I absolutely...
0:53:30 > 0:53:34- That was 1870s.- Exactly, it's Victorian sentimental tosh, frankly.
0:53:34 > 0:53:39So, the big question is, why didn't members of her family
0:53:39 > 0:53:43know about the existence of this portrait?
0:53:43 > 0:53:47So, Eliza Chute lived very near St Margaret's church,
0:53:47 > 0:53:48was married there,
0:53:48 > 0:53:52she was a keen and talented amateur artist
0:53:52 > 0:53:55known to do portraits intimately, she always spelt "Austin" with an I.
0:53:55 > 0:53:59There are people out there who know the family,
0:53:59 > 0:54:03who might have had an interest in drawing her and knew what she looked like.
0:54:03 > 0:54:06I'm very sorry because I like Eliza Chute.
0:54:06 > 0:54:08I wish she could have known the Austens.
0:54:08 > 0:54:12- But she did know them. - But she did not know them well.
0:54:12 > 0:54:15It would actually make more sense if they didn't know each other that well
0:54:15 > 0:54:21because then this could become lost...to the Austens.
0:54:21 > 0:54:26That almost makes the idea of it being both a portrait and a narrative more appealing actually.
0:54:26 > 0:54:29CLAUDIA: Yes, and I think it was drawn by someone that knew her.
0:54:29 > 0:54:31DEIRDRE: What I want is documentary evidence
0:54:31 > 0:54:35and until someone can supply me with it,
0:54:35 > 0:54:37I maintain it's an imaginary portrait.
0:54:37 > 0:54:41I don't believe that this is an imaginary portrait
0:54:41 > 0:54:44in the sense that someone just made up her features.
0:54:44 > 0:54:52They're too specific for that and they too consciously collect things
0:54:52 > 0:54:55that people who knew her associated with her.
0:54:55 > 0:54:56Kathryn?
0:54:56 > 0:55:00I'm quite taken with the idea that it could be an amateur
0:55:00 > 0:55:02who knew Jane Austen and didn't necessarily
0:55:02 > 0:55:07move closely in the circle of the family, like Eliza Chute.
0:55:07 > 0:55:11I believe that a friend, maybe not even a good friend, or an acquaintance...
0:55:11 > 0:55:17You know, Austen, when she was in London did...go out on her own.
0:55:17 > 0:55:21And I believe that she enjoyed the life that she was able,
0:55:21 > 0:55:23for a brief period of time, to enjoy there.
0:55:23 > 0:55:25It's a lovely quote...
0:55:25 > 0:55:28She did not say, "I went and had my portrait painted."
0:55:28 > 0:55:32But who knows what she's doing in those three months? We don't know what she was doing.
0:55:32 > 0:55:35I suppose, in a sense, this is crunch time
0:55:35 > 0:55:37and I want to ask you all what you think.
0:55:39 > 0:55:43Deirdre, is this a portrait of Jane Austen?
0:55:43 > 0:55:44No. No.
0:55:44 > 0:55:49She's looking soulful, she's looking at the heavens for inspiration.
0:55:49 > 0:55:55- She's not!- Yes, she is. This is my opinion. She's looking up. - She's not looking like that.
0:55:55 > 0:56:00This is what I see in it. That she is solemn, almost sanctimonious,
0:56:00 > 0:56:05very consciously posed. "I am the great writer" attitude.
0:56:05 > 0:56:08No, I couldn't accept that as being her.
0:56:08 > 0:56:12- Kathryn.- When I look at that portrait I see an image
0:56:12 > 0:56:15that looks like Jane Austen.
0:56:15 > 0:56:19Not because it looks like Jane Austen
0:56:19 > 0:56:21that I carry around in my head or my heart
0:56:21 > 0:56:24but it looks like other images I've seen of Jane Austen.
0:56:24 > 0:56:28Authenticated images i.e. the National Portrait Gallery cartoon.
0:56:28 > 0:56:32The portrait itself, there are huge questions around it.
0:56:32 > 0:56:36Who created it? For what purpose? And when?
0:56:36 > 0:56:38Huge questions there,
0:56:38 > 0:56:44but I'm happy to think that looks like Jane Austen.
0:56:44 > 0:56:46I also agree.
0:56:46 > 0:56:54And when you compare this picture with other members of Austen's family, the case gets stronger.
0:56:54 > 0:56:57So, altogether, I think this is a very intriguing candidate
0:56:57 > 0:57:01and I want to know more about it.
0:57:01 > 0:57:05If this picture does turn out to be Jane Austen,
0:57:05 > 0:57:09do you think it would change our view of her?
0:57:09 > 0:57:14- Claudia.- Some people love to think of Jane Austen as the retired,
0:57:14 > 0:57:17sweet-natured aunt who put her work down
0:57:17 > 0:57:22rather than work on her novels every time her nieces
0:57:22 > 0:57:24and nephews came through the door.
0:57:24 > 0:57:29This would certainly counter that fantasy about Jane Austen.
0:57:29 > 0:57:30Kathryn?
0:57:30 > 0:57:34It doesn't fit our sort of chick-lit view of Jane Austen that we have at the moment.
0:57:34 > 0:57:39There is no place for Jane Austen,
0:57:39 > 0:57:43godmother of modern teenage romance, in that portrait
0:57:43 > 0:57:46and that's the Jane Austen who's uppermost in our mind.
0:57:46 > 0:57:49But it's giving us another facet, another way of thinking about her.
0:57:55 > 0:57:59This really couldn't have gone any better from Paula's point of view.
0:57:59 > 0:58:04Two out the three experts say the portrait really could be Jane Austen
0:58:04 > 0:58:06and definitely needs further research.
0:58:06 > 0:58:10The experts have departed. How do you feel that went, Paula?
0:58:10 > 0:58:12Much better than expected.
0:58:12 > 0:58:16All I care about is that this looks like her
0:58:16 > 0:58:19and might be an image of what she really looked like.
0:58:19 > 0:58:21So, for me, that is a result.
0:58:21 > 0:58:25This may not be the completely tidy ending you get in a Jane Austen novel
0:58:25 > 0:58:30but the enigmatic face in the picture has raised many fascinating questions
0:58:30 > 0:58:35and could even overturn our vision of one of the world's most famous women.
0:58:41 > 0:58:44Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:44 > 0:58:47E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk