Jane Austen Case

In this set of materials, the reading passage claims that the teenager subject of the painting is Jane Austen, in order to support this opinion, there are three reasons presented in the reading passage. However, the professor in the lecutre believes that the proofs in the passage are not convincing. He refutes every of the reasons from of passage.

First, in the passage, it is said that after Austen's death, the Austen's family gave permission to use the portrait as an illustration in an edition of Asten's letter and Austen's family recognized it as a portrait of the author. However, according to the professor, the family recognized very long after the death of Austen and the family who recgnized it has never seen Jane austen. So the proof in the passage seems to be not convincing.

Second, it is claimed in the passage that the face of the portrait resembles Cassandra's sketch, in which Jane Austen was depicted. However, the professor rebutes this reason by providing the information that the extended Austen's family is very large and the girl in the portrait can probably be Mary, a relative of Jane Austen.

Finally, the passage holds the opinion that that the style of the portrait links to a famous portrait who was active in the period when Jane Austen was a teenager. However, the professor refutes the reason, he says that the stamp of the portrait was sold by a certain person, who began selling this kind of stamps when Jane was already 27 years old.