As part of its celebrations for the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth this year, Jane Austen’s House in Chawton, Hampshire — Jane Austen’s home for the last eight years of her life and where she lived, wrote, and published her novels —will present a special display bringing together a range of artworks by Jane’s older sister Cassandra Austen, many of which are on public display for the first time.
Cassandra was a talented water-colourist. The most familiar of her artworks are two sketches of Jane herself (one held by the National Portrait Gallery in London, the other in private ownership) but these are not the artworks shown in this display. The Art of Cassandra will instead showcase examples of her meticulous copywork, alongside some of her lesser-known family portraits.
The Art of Cassandra displays ten of Cassandra’s artworks; six of which have never been displayed publicly before. This exciting display is made possible due to recent donations and loans to Jane Austen’s House from descendants of the Austen family, and a loan from the Holburne Museum in Bath.
The display has been curated by Janine Barchas, Professor of English at the University of Texas, Austin and the author of The Novel Life of Jane Austen: a graphic biography . Barchas’s recent research has focused on Cassandra’s artworks, many of which proved to be scrupulously copied from existing books and prints – a valued artistic skill before the invention of the photograph. For seven of the artworks on display, Barchas can show matching prints or bookplates. All of this expands our knowledge of the reading habits of the Austens and the larger artistic context of drawing, reading, and music-making in which the Austen women lived and worked.
Cassandra’s Pencil sketch of ‘Conjugal Love’, part of the Jane Austen’s House collection. Credit: Jane Austen’s House.
Janine Barchas says: “This seemingly modest exhibition of ten artworks is the largest-ever public display of the confirmed artworks of Cassandra Austen. Not since Cassandra’s creative years in this very cottage have so many of her surviving artworks been gathered together in one place. Four of these artworks were only recently discovered to exist among the possessions of Austen descendants. I’m thrilled that they will once again be displayed in the home where the Austen women lived and worked.”
Sophie Reynolds, Head of Collections, Interpretation and Engagement at Jane Austen’s House says: “This is a small display, but a truly exciting one. Cassandra was an accomplished artist and for the Austen family her artworks were as important as Jane’s writing. Her skill was akin to Jane’s own – neat and careful, with delicacy and lightness of touch, so to see them is a pleasure in itself – but more than that, for those interested in Jane Austen, Cassandra’s artworks also remind us of the many paintings and drawings in Jane’s novels. It is lovely to think that Cassandra may have inspired these – in particular Elinor Dashwood’s drawings in Sense and Sensibility. On moving to Barton Cottage, Jane tells us, the Dashwood women make the house a home by ‘arranging their particular concerns … Marianne’s pianoforte was unpacked and properly disposed of; and Elinor’s drawings were affixed to the walls of their sitting room’ – just as Cassandra’s artworks are today”
The ten works on display include Cassandra’s copies of ‘Maria,’ by Peltro William Tomkins, after John Russell; a plate from an instruction manual entitled Cipriani’s Rudiments of Drawing (1786); and a print entitled ‘Conjugal Love’ by Bartolozzi, published in 1786.
The Art of Cassandra will run until 8th June and is free with House entry. An online version of the exhibition will also be available on the Jane Austen’s House website.
