Jane Austen (1775-1817) is one of the most famous of all English novelists, and today her novels are more popular than ever, with several recently adapted as Hollywood movies. But we do not have many records of what she looked like. For a long time, the only accepted image of Austen was an amateur sketch of an adult Austen made by her sister Cassandra. However recently a professionally painted, full-length portrait of a teenage girl owned by a member of the Austen family has come up for sale. Although the professional painting is not titled Jane Austen, there are good reasons to believe she is the subject.
First, in 1882, several decades after Austen's death, Austen's family gave permission to use the portrait as an illustration in an edition of her letters. Austen's family clearly recognized it as a portrait of the author. So, for over a century now, the Austen family itself has endorsed the claim that the girl in the portrait is Jane Austen.
Second, the face in the portrait clearly resembles the one in Cassandra's sketch, which we know depicts Austen. Though somewhat amateurish, the sketch communicates definite details about Austen's face. Even though the Cassandra sketch is of an adult Jane Austen, the features are still similar to those of the teenage girl in the painting. The eyebrows, nose, mouth, and overall shape of the face are very much like those in the full-length portrait.
Third, although the painting is unsigned and undated, there is evidence that it was painted when Austen was a teenager. The style links it to Ozias Humphrey, a society portrait painter who was the kind of professional the wealthy Austen family would hire. Humphrey was active in the late 1780s and early 1790s, exactly the period when Jane Austen was the age of the girl in the painting.
The article states that the painting of a teenager girl owned by a member of the Austen is Jane Austen. The author provides three reasons of support. However, the speaker explains that the evidence, which link Lane to this portrait is questionable and refutes each of the author's claims.
First, the reading claims that after the death of Jane Austen, the family gave permission of using her images in an edition of her letters. Thus, the family claims that the portrait it is indeed a painting of Austen. However, the professor refutes this point by saying that the family's authorization was provided after the death of this woman. He states that in seventeen years nobody had seen her, yet she cannot be the person in the portrait.
Second, the article posits that the face reflected in the portrait is so similar to that appearance in Cassandra's sketch. The author points out that the face's characteristics of Austen as an adult resembles to those as a child, and thus the painting should be Austen. However the speaker says that the person in the portrait could be one of her relative. Moreover, the professor mentions that Austen had many teenager cousins. In fact, it is said that the portrait belongs to her distant niece.
Third, the reading says that even though the portrait is unsigned and undated, it is a painting from Austen in her childhood. According to the writer, perhaps, a painter called Ozias portrait her because he was active in the precise period she was a teenager. The professor opposes to this point by explaining that the stamp of the back of the cava portray was not used to sell after 27 years of Austen's birth. Therefore, the young person is not her based on the evidence
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flaws:
Don't reiterate the contents of reading passages a lot.
Attribute Value Ideal
Score: 25 in 30
Category: Very Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 16 12
No. of Words: 297 250
No. of Characters: 1377 1200
No. of Different Words: 141 150
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.151 4.2
Average Word Length: 4.636 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.404 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 106 80
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 69 60
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 43 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 16 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 18.562 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.01 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.688 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.37 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.544 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.161 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 4 4