Ozias Humphry, Elizabeth Craven and Jane Austen

Elizabeth Craven was painted many times. This portrait of her by Ozias Humphry (1742-1810) is one of the most fascinating images as it captures a certain shrewdness and humorous twinkle in the eye. She is not just a pretty face! 

Ozias Humphrey, self-portrait.

The date of the painting is not recorded, but has to be deduced from the style of the sitter's clothes and hair, her age and from biographical details of the artist and the sitter. Ozias Humphry was a tremendously talented artist whose career was blighted by an accident that damaged his eyesight, and by 1797 he became completely blind. He did not spend his entire working life in England; he was in Italy from 1773 until 1777, and left for India in 1785. 

So the portrait could either have been commissioned before 1773 (when Elizabeth was aged 23) or in the period 1777-1783 when she was a little older, and Humphry was again in England; or in the 1790s. It seems unlikely to be the work of a man whose eyesight was deteriorating. When we look at the high-built-up hairstyle, with a silken scarf wound into it, and the light muslin shawl draped around the shoulders, they are very similar to what we see in the portrait done by George Romney in 1778.

Elizabeth changed her hairstyle to keep up with the fashions and by the 1790s high-piled hair was outmoded. Ladies favoured an abundance of curls all around the face and sometimes dropping to the shoulders. Later drawings of her show a curled fringe.

Ozias Humphry also painted this charming picture of a young girl in around 1788. 

Tradition claims that it is a portrait of the young Jane Austen, done while she, her sister and her father were staying with her great-uncle Francis Austen in Sevenoaks in Kent. Ozias Humphry often worked nearby at Knole for the Duke of Dorset, and he painted a portrait of Francis Austen. So it is not impossible that it is Jane Austen, aged 13, in this picture. 

If so, it is pleasant to find one more intriguing link between Austen and Craven. Both writers were painted by the same artist!

If you would like to know more about Elizabeth Craven, her life and her writings, read Elizabeth Craven: Writer, Feminist and European.

The link to the Vernon Press page of the book is: https://vernonpress.com/title?id=334 .

The link to the Amazon page of the book is: https://www.amazon.com/Elizabeth-Craven-Feminist-European-History/dp/1622732758/