A Conversation Piece

During his extensive research into the Rice portrait, Mrs Rice’s brother, Robin Roberts, discovered the catalogue of a three-day sale, which had taken place at the previous home of Jane Austen’s brother, Edward Austen Knight, Godmersham Park in Kent on June 6th 1983. Godmersham Park had been bought in 1936 by a Mrs Elsie Tritton. An avid collector, on her death Christie’s held a three-day sale and the catalogue, beautifully illustrated, was most impressive. There were various lots at the end of the sale containing a photograph of Edward Knight and pictures of the family which confirmed that the Trittons had also bought, with the house, the residue of the Knights’ family possessions.

One picture in particular attracted Robin’s interest, described in the catalogue as belonging to the English school, circa 1780. It shows a gentleman and his wife, with their four children standing around an oval dining table in a small dining parlour. We believe that this little painting is of George Austen, his wife Cassandra and four of the Austen children - Cassandra, Jane, Edward and Francis, painted as a commemorative picture to celebrate the fact that his cousins the Knights had decided to adopt Edward.

Sadly Christie’s no longer have the record of the sale so we have been unable to find out who bought the picture at the auction. We have advertised in Kent wondering if a local person bought it, but have failed to find it. Whoever does have it, is probably totally unaware of its enormous interest and considerable value. It would be marvellous to see the picture and also to look at the reverse of it as, if it is as we believe, by Ozias Humphry, he would almost certainly have written all the names on the back. Edward Knight would have taken this picture, executed we believe at Steventon Rectory, to Godmersham, when he was formally adopted in 1783.

Ozias Humphry had returned from Italy and France in 1779, and in 1780/1781, was busy with his largest and most famous group of sitters, an oil portrait of six members of the Berkeley Family (and one other child, a girl of about five years of age). This portrait is a very fine one, and hangs at Berkeley Castle, Lady Elizabeth Berkeley and her two children occupy the left side of the composition. Lady Elizabeth Berkeley had married Lord Craven, and she and her family lived at Hampstead Marshall, not many miles from Steventon Rectory. Ozias, following his usual custom of staying with his sitters whilst he sketched them (see Charles Williamson’s life and works of Ozias Humphry RA 1918), was therefore within easy reach of the Austen Family.

Mrs Rice’s late husband, Henry Rice, always believed that Uncle Francis Austen had a great deal to do with Edward Austen’s adoption by the Knights. An heir was needed if the Estate was to be held together, this was his speciality, and would also be an excellent thing for his nephew’s son and family. Thomas Knight of Godmersham died in 1780 and his son and daughter-in-law, Thomas and Catherine Knight are known to have visited the Austens in 1781. This little picture was, we think, a record of their decision to adopt Edward, and also, a completely allegorical one. It is brim full of symbolism and allusion (much beloved by Ozias Humphry). It is also full of puns and quips, equally much beloved by the Austen Family. In many ways, it could also be regarded as an enormous ‘in-family’ Austen joke.

The central figure, a young boy holding aloft a bunch of grapes, holds the attention of the other figures. We believe him to be Edward Austen, smiling happily and celebrating his coming inheritance. His mother looks proudly on, pointing at him, and dressed in her best with peacock feathers in her cap; a sign of luck and prosperity. Robin discovered a poem by George Herbert, circa 1633, which makes the connection between a cluster of grapes and a great inheritance.

The table is also, literally loaded with symbolism. The pineapple, a prized fruit, was first introduced to England in 1672, and the Duke of Chandos, Mrs Austen’s great-uncle, was the first person to grow pineapples under glass. It represents ‘Hospitality, Prosperity and Abundance’. There is bread and wine on the table; the two decanters in front of each adult are placed ready for a toast with an unfilled glass by each hand. What appears to be a plum pudding, representing a plentiful future is also there, and if you look very carefully at the fruit plate, placed before Edward, a spaniel can be seen, and also a pheasant, an illusion to his love of shooting and sport. George Austen holds a missal in his hands, with a silk ribbon draped over his fingers, the only one not looking up at the grapes. He appears to be giving thanks for the blessings bestowed upon the family by the coming adoption. It also underlines his role as a man of the cloth and a clergyman. Again, who could have executed this table in all its minutiae as well as Ozias Humphry?

Jane, the little five-year-old, on Edward’s right, is holding aloft a tiny horseshoe nail, and pointing it at her brother. This is an allusion to his coming adoption by the Knights; a horseshoe nail is the genogram for an ‘adoptive child’. There are also nails on the plates in front of the other figures, which allude to the same thing, informing whoever looks at the picture, that the adoption has the family’s consent and approbation.  

Who but Ozias, first a miniaturist, then a portraitist, would have done this? To complete this picture, whilst re-reading Jane Austen’s letters, we came upon the following passage in a letter dated Tuesday 9th February 1813. Jane is referring to a Miss Clewes; a new governess Edward Knight has engaged to look after his children.

‘Miss Clewes seems the very Governess they have been looking for these ten years; longer coming than J. Bond’s last shock of corn – if she will but only keep Good and Amiable and Perfect! Clewes (sic) is better than Clowes. And is it not a name for Edward to pun on? – Is not a Clew a nail?’

Jane was punning on the word ‘Clew’ (or clue) and the old French word, Clou (de girofle) which in its turn, was derived from the Latin ‘Clovus’, meaning nail (of the Clove tree). The dried flower bud of the clove tree resembles a small nail or tack. Of course Edward would have ‘punned’ on it, because of his own very happy associations with a small horseshoe nail.

Both the Austen girls, Jane and Cassandra, have full round cheeks and wear the white muslin dresses with ribbon sashes (a higher cut sash in Jane’s case) usually worn by children at this time. Francis is thought to be the boy on Edward’s left, James would have been away at school, Charles was too young to be depicted and Henry, probably also at school. The ages of the Austen children in 1780 fit these identifications.

The background above and below the table and the central figures also holds significant clues. Professor Margaret Doody has suggested that the allegorical picture above the fireplace on the right is of the God Zeus, abducting the handsome, young, Ganymede, to be cupbearer to the Gods, and to be endowed with immortality and all luxuries. The portrait on the left wall is a copy of the miniature of George Austen as a young man, which is in the Chawton Museum. He was known as the ‘Handsome-Proctor’ and is dressed exactly as he is when shown presenting Edward Austen to the Knights in the silhouette of 1783. The small picture below, of a lady in a white dress, could well be of Mrs Austen on her wedding day.  

Below the table, painted into the centre of the carpet, is a large ‘M’. ‘M’ is another genogram, denoting a married couple, and reinforces the fact that this couple are able to give their legitimate son in adoption, and also that they are happy to do so. To the left of the ‘M’, and slightly above it, is a painted date, which we believe could be ‘1781’, not 1780, again, it would be necessary to see the original to confirm this point.

Finally, we believe that it is possible that great-uncle Francis Austen might have asked Ozias Humphry to do this “Commemorative Sketch” to record Edward’s adoption. Francis Austen probably had some influence in the decision of the Knights to adopt Edward Austen. The evidence that he knew the family of George Austen well is to be found in the first paragraph of John Hubback’s book, Cross-currents in a long life, which is reproduced on this website in the Primary Evidence Section. John Hubback wrote that Francis Austen of Sevenoaks was a frequent visitor to his nephew George Austen's rectory at Steventon and we know that he bought livings for George as well as paying for his schooling.

We hope that this article will be of interest to the Austen world; we have found it all compelling and very exciting. Our grateful thanks are due to Professor Margaret Doody and Professor Claudia Johnson for their interest and support, and also to Jane Odiwe, who encouraged and helped us.