San Diego Region: Painting Steventon Rectory (VIRTUAL)
Jan 24
11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
Painting Steventon Rectory
Join the San Diego Region for "Painting Steventon Rectory: : Depicting Jane Austen's Childhood Home Through Art and Evidence," a presentation by Jo South.
Nothing is left of Jane Austen's birthplace—Steventon Rectory in Hampshire. It is now just a field a short walk from the church. But the findings from the 2011 Archaeological Rectory Project, detailed in the book Archaeology Greets Jane Austen by Deborah Charlton (2017), started a fascinating artistic endeavor to paint what the Rectory would have looked like. Taking archaeological evidence, and in-depth conversations with Project Director and Lead Archaeologist Charlton about Jane Austen's letters and unpublished research from the Stevenson Rectory Project Archive, South began creating a historically informed visual reconstruction of Jane Austen's birthplace and where she lived her first 25 years.
Allowing for some artistic license, this is the first known representation to date of the Rectory as it might have appeared in Austen's time—a likeness approved by Charlton, who said after seeing the painting for the first time: “A very emotional moment—looking at Steventon Rectory, visible again after 203 years.”
Register for the Zoom event now.
