The real Mr Darcy pale, slim
BRITAIN: He is literature’s most eligible bachelor: handsome, wealthy, and the inspiration for countless romantic spinoffs in the past 200 years.
But leading academics have researched how Jane Austen’s character Mr Darcy was likely really to have looked, and the results are a far cry from the tall, dark and handsome leading man fans may have imagined.
In fact, a reallife Fitzwilliam Darcy of his day was more likely to have a long nose, pointed chin, powdered white hair and a pale complexion, according to historians.
The team, led by Professor John Sutherland, has unveiled what it claims to be the ‘‘first historically accurate portrait’’ of Mr Darcy. It did so by looking into the ‘‘scraps’’ of description that Austen provided.
Austen’s relationships and the men who may have inspired her character were also factored in. Possible influences included John Parker, the 1st Earl of Morley, and Thomas Lefroy. Both men sported powdered hair and had long, youthful faces with pale complexions. Noblemen at the time had similar features.
The team concluded that, unlike Colin Firth and Matthew Macfadyen’s depictions of Mr Darcy, the character would have had slender, sloping shoulders and a modestly-sized chest. A muscular chest and broad shoulders would have been the sign of a labourer, not a gentleman.
Portraits to show what the character would have looked like have been created by illustrator Nick Hardcastle.
- Telegraph Group