Primary Evidence for the Rice Portrait

On this page we are sharing the primary evidence which exists for the Rice Portrait.

Primary documents proving provenance

In the first section there are five documents. Taken together these letters provide an unbroken line of descent from Thomas Austen, second cousin and exact contemporary of Jane Austen. They also provide us with the date of the painting, 1789.

As art critic Brian Sewell noted in an article written in 2007: ‘The authenticity of any painting by Botticelli, for example, with such an unbroken provenance, would be the more highly-prized for it and accepted without question’.

You can read more about the individuals named here in the Provenance Section.

1.Thomas Harding-Newman to John Rouse Bloxam

This letter is dated 30 December 1880. (Austen-Leigh Archive, Hampshire Archives and Local Studies)

It was sent by the then owner of the portrait Rev Dr. Thomas Harding-Newman to another Fellow of Magdalen, the academic and clergyman, Rev Dr. John Rouse Bloxam. Bloxam copied out a portion of the letter which he passed on to John Morland Rice on Sept 1, 1882.

I should like to give another painting of Jane Austen, the novelist by Zoffany to her relative your neighbour Morland Rice. It is of a girl about 15 and came into my family the gift of Col. Austen of Chippington [sic] to my mother-in-law, or rather stepmother, my father’s second wife; who was a great admirer of the novelist. I can remember Col. Austen visiting this place.

Latterly when at Bramber I have failed to fall in with my old friend. I don’t think he can have forgotten me. I was at Oxford when he knocked his head against a post and ascertained that the post was the harder of the two.

Letter from Thomas Harding-Newman to John Rouse Bloxam

This letter explains how Thomas Harding-Newman had acquired the painting. It had been given to him by his step-mother Elizabeth Harding-Newman neé Hall, by a friend of hers, Colonel Thomas Austen (Jane Austen’s second-cousin). Thomas Harding-Newman’s attribution to Zoffany was a mistake; as we now know, the portrait was painted by Ozias Humphry.

2.John Rouse Bloxam to General gibbes Rigaud

This letter is dated Easter Monday 1883 (Bodleian Library)

Talking of paintings Hardman [sic] Newman, nephew of Dr Newman has just sent me a full-length portrait by Zoffany of Miss Austen, the novelist, to give to Rice, who is a connection of the Lady. - Rice is much pleased with it - I knew that Newman intended to leave it to Rice, but did not, - but his nephew to his great credit has given it.

Letter from John Rouse Bloxam to Gibbes Rigaud

General Gibbes Rigaud was a friend of John Rouse Bloxam, Oxford historian and rector of Upper Beeding in Sussex where he was a neighbour of John Morland Rice, grandson of Jane's brother Edward Austen Knight and great-nephew of Jane Austen. This letter explains that although he had expressed his intention to do so, Thomas Harding-Newman did not actually give the painting to his old college friend John Morland Rice before he died. However Thomas Harding-Newman’s nephew and beneficiary, Benjamin Harding-Newman, knowing of his uncle’s wishes, had passed it on.

3.Fanny Caroline Lefroy to Mary Augusta Austen-Leigh

This letter is dated 23 October 1883 (Austen-Leigh Archive, Hampshire Record Office)

I never heard before of the portrait of Jane Austen I feel sure it never was either at Steventon or Chawton. My mother & Aunt Caroline would certainly have recollected it had they ever seen it. In 1789 the year it was painted she was a school girl in the Abbey School here.Possibly she might have been to Godmersham to stay with her cousins & companionise her brother Edward & possibly Mr and Mrs Knight had it done.

I suppose Mr Morland Rice can throw some light on the matter or is it a picture he has picked up of a Jane Austen painted by Romney but not the Jane. Mr Morland Austen picked one up & fondly believed it was her, but it was painted at Malta where she never was. I will write & ask Cassie if she knows anything of it. I am sure her father & mother never had any money to spend on portraits of their children.

If it is genuine would not Mr M.R. generously allow it to be photographed?

I should greatly like to see it.

Letter from Fanny Caroline Lefroy to Mary Augusta Austen-Leigh

Fanny Caroline Lefroy was the daughter of Jane Austen’s niece Anna Lefroy. Mary Augusta Austen-Leigh was her cousin, daughter of James Edward Austen-Leigh. They are discussing the portrait after it has been given to John Morland Rice and speculating as to where it might have been painted. This letter is important as it also gives us the date of the painting, 1789 (mis-reported by Deirdre Le Faye as ‘1787’ which you can read about HERE.)

4.Henry Morland Austen to John Morland Rice

This letter is dated 9 September 1884 (Rice family archive)

My Dear Rice,

I thank you very much for your interesting letter, which puts the matter in a very different light. I saw Miss Lefroy yesterday. She knows more than anybody about the family history. She knew before of the portrait in your possession. Except for one or two difficulties, she would have no doubts about its genuineness.

1. Jane A was born Dec. 1775. The date on your picture is (she thinks) 1788 or 9, making her not 14.

2. Her parents did not go to Bath till they left Steventon in 1801.

3. Jane and Cassandra were at school at Reading at that period.

But on the other hand, her Uncle and Aunt Leigh Perrot often visited Bath and she may have been with them, also "Northanger Abbey" was written long before 1801 and the local colouring is such as to show that she must have been there before she wrote it.There was only one Col Austen of Kippington, my father’s elder brother, who married 1st Miss Morland, your mother’s dear friend from girlhood, and from whom you have your own name as your mother told me three years ago. 2nd Caroline Manning – who now lives at Hurstpierpoint and whom you met the other day.

My father was a second cousin of Jane Austen. My brother sold Kippington on inheriting some twenty years since and built a new house on the really old family property at Horsmonden, which my father had from old John Austen from Broadford and also the Tenterden property from another branch. Sir Henry A. whose wife (as mentioned in his life) was the great friend of Cowper the poet. The Tunbridge branch was the same. If you really want it, I could perhaps get the whole pedigree for you.

Letter from Henry Morland Austen to John Morland Rice

Henry Morland Austen was the nephew of Colonel Thomas Austen. He and John Morland Rice were both named ‘Morland’ after Colonel Thomas Austen’s wife, Margaretta Morland. There is again a reference to the date 1788 or 9, which we know to be correct (see Costume Section)

5.Personal Research Note of Fanny Caroline Lefroy

This note is undated and contained within an envelope which says ‘‘History of the Portrait of Jane Austen’ in Fanny Caroline Lefroy’s hand. (Private Ownership of Mrs Anne Rice)

The history of the portrait of Jane Austen now in the possession of Morland Rice her Gt nephew.

Old Dr Newman, fellow of Magdalen years ago told him that he had a portrait of Jane Austen the novelist, that had been in his family many years. He stated that it was done at Bath when she was about 15 & he promised to leave him (Morland Rice) the picture. A few months before Dr Newman died, he wrote to a friend of his (a Dr Bloxam) sending him a picture as a farewell present & added “I have another picture that I wish to go to your neighbour Morland Rice. This a portrait of Jane Austen the novelist by Zoffany. Her picture was given to my step-mother by her friend Colonel Austen of Kippendon [sic], Kent because she was a great admirer of her works”.

Colonel Austen died 1859. He could not have had the portrait painted himself. He must have inherited it from his father John [corrected to Francis Motley in a different hand] Austen who was first cousin to Jane Austen’s father, in 1789 the date of the picture Colonel Austen was probably not twenty.

Personal Research Note of Fanny Caroline Lefroy

The letter was given to Mrs Rice as a heritage document by a distant relative of the LeFroys and the handwriting has been verified as Fanny Caroline Lefroy’s. It is important for a number of reasons. Firstly it confirms that Fanny Caroline Lefroy believed the portrait to be of Jane Austen. Secondly it confirms the provenance of the painting, back to Thomas Austen’s father, Francis Motley Austen. Thirdly, it once again confirms the date of the painting as 1789. You can read more about this note HERE.

Other Primary Evidence

correspondence from john henry hubback

John Henry Hubback was the grandson of Jane Austen’s brother Francis Austen. As a boy he spent long periods living with Sir Francis Austen when he was not at naval college. In 1906 he published a book, Cross Currents in a Long Life, which opens with a description of his boyhood.

This confirms his close relationship with his grandfather, Jane Austen’s brother which confirms the remark made by the Director of the National Portrait Gallery (NPG), Henry Hake, see below, that he knew a good deal about the family. He had no doubt that the Rice Portrait was correct.

Importantly for the Rice Portrait, John Hubback also reveals that his grandfather was a great favourite of his grandfather’s brother, another Francis Austen. Sir Francis’ own grandfather Stephen had died when Austen’s father George was a boy and we know that Stephen’s brother Francis acted in loco parentis to George Austen, paying for his schooling, buying church livings for him and almost certainly having a hand in Edward’s adoption by the Knights. It is this Francis, Jane Austen’s great uncle who we believe commissioned the Rice Portrait along with a portrait of Jane’s sister Cassandra (see below for Cassandra’s portrait). John Henry Hubback confirms that old Francis Austen visited the Austens frequently at the Rectory at Steventon.

MY BOYHOOD was passed alternately at the Royal Naval School at New Cross and the Hampshire residence of my grandfather, Sir Francis Austen (a brother of Jane Austen), one of the last survivors of Nelson’s captains, his ‘Band of Brothers’, and in my days Admiral of the Fleet. From him I learnt to play chess, some eighty years ago now. A curious link with bygone centuries is provided by his life. As a boy at Steventon Rectory, before he went to sea in 1788, he was a great favourite with another Francis Austen, his grandfather’s brother, a frequent visitor of the Rectory. This Francis was born in 1699, and here I am, two hundred and thirty-five years later. Sir Francis’ life and intimacies touched both his own great uncle’s life and my own.

Excerpt from Cross Currents in a Long Life by John Hubback

In 1932, when the NPG were searching for a portrait of Jane Austen for the Gallery, Hubback corresponded with Director, Henry Hake. It is clear from this correspondence that both Hubback and Hake accepted that the portrait was of Jane Austen. Hubback, having explained that the owner, Henry E. H. Rice, did not want to part with the portrait, offered that his own daughter could paint a replica. The letter is dated 20th September 1932.

Sir

Letter from John Hubback to Henry Hake, Director of the NPG

Miss Agnes Graveson has been in correspondence with yourself as to a suggested replica of a portrait of Jane Austen for the National Portrait Gallery. I enclose your letter to her of 26 July inviting an interview. As Miss Graveson finds it difficult to come, I have undertaken to act as a substitute. I am a grandson of Sir Francis Austen, Jane Austen’s brother, and I have the consent of Mr Edward Rice, also a member of the family to allow a replica to be made of his picture of Jane Austen as a young girl executed by Zoffany about 1791.

The enclosed note as to the authenticity of the portrait is from the Austen-Leigh’s “Jane Austen her life and letters”, and is communicated to you by the express desire of Mr Rice, and of myself also.

Would it suit you to give me an interview on 6th or 7th October, either morning or afternoon (preferably morning).

The portrait is a large one, and it is considered to be very fine work.

I remain, Sir

Yours obediently

John H Hubback

Memorandum written by Henry Hake

This memorandum was written by NPG Director Henry Hake in October 1932 following his meeting with John Henry Hubback.

Memorandum

Mr. Hubback called with his daughter Mrs. Hicks about the portrait of Jane Austen. I explained to them that the rule of the Trustees which did not allow any modern copy of a portrait to be admitted would unfortunately rule out the very kind offer which had been made. They told me that the present owner of the portrait, Mr. Rice and his family, had no intention of parting with the picture and I said that I was entirely in sympathy with their attitude as long as it was realised that in the event of the picture coming to this institution we would like to have an opportunity of acquiring it.

Mr. Hubback in his young days lived with his grandfather, an Admiral, one of Jane Austen’s brothers and he consequently knows a great deal about the family. I tried to find out whether any drawings could possibly exist anywhere. It appears that the Austen family are tenacious of their inheritances and I suggested it was not quite beyond possibility that something else might exist. From what they told me it did not seem very likely.

Mr. Hubback was firmly convinced that the portrait in the cap was a made-up affair from some other drawing and it looked as if the drawing from which this had been made up might be in existence. At any rate, Mr. Hubback spoke of a family who had sold all its Jane Austen possessions to America. He promised to send me his book on Jane Austen in which he refers to the portraits.

H.M.H.

6.10.32

letter from Richard Arthur austen-leigh to Robert chapman

Extract from a letter written by R. A. Austen Leigh to Dr R. W. Chapman dated Friday Nov 28 (1952).

This letter from Richard Arthur Austen-Leigh to Robert Chapman confirms that a direct descendant of Francis Motley Austen, Mrs May Harrison, owned a portrait she thought might be Jane Austen We do not have Chapman’s letter to Austen-Leigh nor do we have Mrs Harrison’s letter or the photograph she enclosed. But we can infer from this reply that the portrait was similar to the ‘Zoffany’ as the Rice Portrait was then known and that the girl in the portrait looked similar to the ‘Zoffany girl’. The suggestion is that Cassandra is wearing a different style of dress - she was 15 and would have been in adult style clothing, not children’s attire like her younger sister Jane. But as Adams (CK Adams at the NPG) had previously decided (based on very little evidence) that the dress in the Rice Portrait or ‘Zoffany’ as it was then known, dated to the nineteenth century, the two men dismissed Mrs Harrison’s enquiry.

For more on the missing Cassandra portrait, see HERE

My Dear RWC

As to the portrait it is charming and Margaret would like to believe it is JA, but after careful consideration today, helped by Winifred Jenkins, we decided against it being JA and thought the picture was more like the Zoffany girl than like JA.

Indeed, as it comes via Mrs. Harrison from the Kippington (or Capel Manor) stable, the Zoffany one belonged to a Kippington Austen, there seems quite a probability of it and the Zoffany being the same person. But perhaps Adams will say that they cannot be the same person owing to the costume!

Many thanks for your note about the Knight pictures. I knew they were coming up for sale – but not the actual date. But I don’t want to buy any and certainly haven’t got the money.

I return the portrait.

Yours ever

R. A. Austen Leigh

P.S. I return Mrs. Harrison’s letter