This is the very latest picture of the portrait of Jane Austen taken by Richard Valencia in London. The reastoration has been finished by Eva Schwann and I have never seen a better image of Jane Austen’s Portrait. The image copyright is with the Bridgeman Art Library. If anyone wishes to use it in an article could they please apply to Bridgemans directly.

Restorer Eva Schwann discovered the H within the O monogram after removing previous overpainting underneath the parasol tip. The monogram slants to the left

NOVEMBER 2018

Anjana Ahuja, the Financial Times and the right to privacy.

On 01 April 2017 a prominent article appeared in the Financial Times by science journalist Anjana Ahuja. The article was not about science but about a picture she had purchased privately at an auction in November 2015. She paid £400 for the picture which the auction house described as 'attributed to James Northcote'. The portrait was signed Northcote and dated 1803, but looked distinctly odd with rubbing out of the paint under the signature....

Find out more...

JANUARY 2019

It is rare for new evidence to be uncovered relating to Jane Austen. It is rarer still for a document to come to light from someone who was close to Jane’s immediate family. So, the appearance of a previously unknown note, written by Jane Austen’s great-niece Fanny Caroline Lefroy (1820-1885), is

a significant discovery.

Even more exciting is the fact that the note relates to the painting known as the Rice Portrait... Read more.

FEBRUARY 2019

In recent years a great deal of new evidence has emerged which supports the Rice Portrait being, as we have always claimed, a portrait of a young Jane Austen. This evidence has been shared on our website as it has emerged. However we are aware that there is now so much evidence that it is difficult to sift through it all! In this document researcher Ellie Bennett has collated the key facts into one document which presents the case for the Rice Portrait being a portrait of Jane Austen, painted by Ozias Humphry in 1789. We hope you enjoy reading it. We very much appreciate feedback so please do let us know what you think via our Contact Page. You can read the article HERE.

JANUARY 2019

We recently revealed new evidence that the Rice Portrait is indeed a portrait of Jane Austen in the form of a personal research note written by Fanny Caroline Lefroy, Jane Austen's grand-niece. You can read more about this HERE. We are delighted that the Guardian newspaper has reported on this new evidence, which has generated a great deal of interest. You can read the Guardian article HERE.

FEBRUARY 2019

New evidence of the envelope and note written by Fanny Caroline Lefroy in support of the Rice portrait of Jane Austen.

There are many examples of Fanny’s handwriting in archives particularly the Hampshire record office if any scholar out there wishes to verify this note Anne Rice has said that she is entirely happy to give access.

MARCH 2019

We have been extremely privileged to have had the support of Stephen Cole and his company, Acumé Forensic, experts in the field of digital forensics in our efforts to prove the Rice Portrait. Stephen has carried out many hours of work on this, notwithstanding his extremely heavy workload, simply because he believes this portrait is important for Jane Austen’s legacy and to all those who love her work . This work has all be done without recompense.

JUNE 2019

The Rice portrait and the Northcote farce.

In April 2017 an article was published in the Financial Times which ostensibly claimed that a £400 portrait purchased by journalist Anjana Ahuja at auction disproved the claim of the Rice Portrait to be Jane Austen. My mother, Mrs Anne Rice, was given less than 24 hours to comment before the article was submitted for publication, and after the article was published, she was denied a right to reply by the Financial Times.

JUNE 2019

Startling new evidence has recently emerged in favour of the Rice Portrait of Jane Austen, in the form of a previously unknown Victorian watercolour. The watercolour was purchased at a second-hand shop in London by a member of the public who, realising that it was a copy of the Rice Portrait, contacted the owners. The painting is particularly interesting in that it shows the Rice Portrait as it was before 1920, when it narrowly escaped destruction in a catastrophic house fire and was subsequently cut to fit a Victorian frame.