Painting And The Past

Jane, Jane and more Jane Austen, this time surprisingly in The Guardian who are usually not interested in the upper classes of the past.

This picture of a young girl is the subject and is said to be of a young Jane. There were probably many like this at the time so what matters is the actual history and provenance of the work.

I personally like to think that it might be if only because it is so different to the idea of Jane becoming common at the present time.

We forget that her father was criticised by many for taking the trouble to educate his daughters on the grounds that this might impede their marriage potential.

But what did impede them was his lack of wealth to provide the portions, that is the money, needed at that level of society.

Money did matter, so some things do not change.