San Diego Region: Painting Steventon Rectory (VIRTUAL)

Painting Steventon Rectory

Join the San Diego Region for a virtual presentation by Jo South on "Painting Steventon Rectory: Depicting Jane Austen's Childhood Home Through Art and Evidence." 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. Allowing for some artistic license by artist South, this is the first known representation, to date, of the rectory in Jane Austen's time. In the words of Charlton, who was lead architect, seeing the final painting for the first time was “A very emotional moment—looking at Steventon Rectory, visible again after 203 years.”

South will talk us through the process of how she developed the visual interpretation of the rectory and painted the picture based on the evidence.

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If you are expecting a typical Georgian-style rectory, you might be surprised by the outcome!