] Reynolds died in 1792...

Sorry....I didn't make myself clear. I meant that it looked like the producers of the film had modelled the portraits of Darcy and Georgiana on those done by Reynolds. Made them in the style of.... if you see what I mean.

I've got a huge book on Reynolds, and I was reading his biography yesterday, so I know when he died. In fact, he was completely blind by 1791, so if Austen actually had Reynolds in mind as the painter, P&P would have to be set in 1790 at the latest.

Mind you, we know that Austen knew the painter's work, but would she have been aware of his blindness and subsequent death? Just asking, beacause I couldn't tell you if a range of modern artists are still living, I must admit. Not without doing research on the net, anyway. And of course, Austen wouldn't have had the wherewithal to discover such things.