Jane Austen, Redux

This year's most unexpected and delightful discovery was this portrait believed to be that of Jane Austen a year or two before she died. I've never been happy with the other portraits that exist of her. Too cherubic, perhaps? In this she looks more like a Virginia Woolf. Sharp features, gaunt, triangular, severe-looking, yet elegant, face. Penetrating, all observant eyes, watching the world with an ironic glint. What is she looking at? There is some thought behind the just pursed lips, neither aloof nor unfriendly "[w]ith a great deal of quiet observation, and a knowledge, which she often wished less" ...