Keywords: Jane-Austen-portrait-victorian-engraving.png Portrait of Jane Austen late nineteenth-century engraving Like all older portraits of Austen this is based on the engraving in the 1870 Edward Austen-Leigh Memoir of Jane Austen which was based on a somewhat rudimentary life sketch of Jane Austen by her sister Cassandra a sketch which was generally not considered too successful by those who had known Jane Austen as reinterpreted and Victorianized in 1869 by Mr Andrews of Maidenhead Kent and then the engraver see Jane Austen A Family Record p 253 The 1870 engraving which was the result of this process was further redone and reinterpreted in subsequent publications with varying results The accuracy of all of these portraits is somewhat doubtful but this particular version is one of the best since it doesn't make Jane Austen look stiff or silly unlike some of the renderings in photo archives which are continually pulled out when the media run stories on Jane Austen See also Image Jane Austen 1870 jpg for a reproduction of the original 1870 engraving this re-engraving is based upon PD-old Jane Austen in portraits Engraved portraits of women Oval portraits of women Austen |