Tuesday 24 May 2016

Costume Experts "Too Adamant"

The opponents of the Rice Portrait would have us all believe that the "experts" are unanimously against the Rice Portrait and that its supporters are a few deluded souls who are hoping  - against all the available evidence - that this is indeed a portrait of Jane Austen.

I hope I have disabused readers of this fallacy in the arguments I have made on this blog.

Today I thought I would share a letter written by Richard Walker, the Regency expert at the National Portrait Gallery to the then owner of the portrait, Henry Rice, in 1986.

Richard Walker is not unsympathetic to the claim that this picture is indeed of Jane Austen  - and he is more than a little sceptical of over-confidence on the part of the costume experts.

He says: "I do encourage you to press on in spite of cold water from the costume people. I find they are very often too adamant in their pronouncements."




Letter from Richard Walker to Henry Rice










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