WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL has revealed the preliminary design of a proposed statue of Jane Austen, commissioned from the figurative sculptor Martin Jennings, to mark the 250th anniversary in 2025 of the novelist’s birth.
She is buried within the north nave aisle of the cathedral. Her memorial stone makes no mention of her literary achievements, but speaks of “the benevolence of her heart, the sweetness of her temper and the extraordinary endowments of her mind”. A brass plaque was added in 1872 on the request of her nephew, to handle the omission.
The life-size sculpture is destined for the Inner Close, once the important cloister of St Swithun’s Priory. The maquette depicts Austen as risen from her writing table and searching outwards: a stance described by the creator of The Real Jane Austen, Professor Paula Byrne, as truly wonderful.
“It captures Austen’s sparkling intelligence, her slender, upright figure, her lightness of touch, as we see in her novels, and her playfulness,” she writes. “The WOMAN [sic] is on the forefront of the sculpture, resplendent in her vigour and energy.”
Most of the £100,000 to fund the work has been secured, and the Chapter is confident that it’ll be fully funded before work is resulting from start next month.
Dr Gillian Dow, a former executive director of Chawton House Library, has admired Jennings’s depiction of “the quietly confident Jane Austen”. It has not, nonetheless, met with the approval of a long-standing Friend of Winchester Cathedral and former chairman of the Jane Austen Society, Elizabeth Proudman. She is quoted within the Hampshire Chronicle as saying: “I don’t think any statue is suitable for this a part of Winchester Cathedral.
“The Inner Close is where the monks had a personal area, it’s a special place. I don’t think we would like to show it into Disneyland-on-Itchen. I don’t think the Inner Close is the place to draw loads of lovely American tourists to return and have a selfie with Jane Austen.”
The Dean, the Very Revd Catherine Ogle, told the Church Times on Tuesday: “A well-considered statue in an outside or public space has the capability to surprise and delight, to bring additional intending to a spot which won’t otherwise be apparent to an off-the-cuff passer-by.
“Look on the inspired sculptural examples of Elgar leaning on his bicycle outside Worcester Cathedral, or the Windrush group, exhausted by their journey, resting next to their suitcases at London’s Waterloo station. The proposed Austen statue at Winchester follows this tradition. She is depicted as a modest figure, frivolously touching her precious desk on which lie the tools of her trade.”
She reflected that, as a Hampshire-born woman, Austen would have known and recognised the Cathedral Close because it stays today. The proposed location was near a well-recognized route she would have taken, and which also became her final journey from her College Street lodgings to her place of rest within the cathedral.
The cathedral had hoped for some years to offer Austen a fitting tribute as a sculpture, Dean Ogle said. “The opportunity has now arisen with a big number of personal donors and small grant providers keen to see in place the luxurious and sensitive design by the acclaimed sculptor Martin Jennings. These funds are restricted by the donors to this project only.
“We recognise that, at a time of cost inflation for therefore many individuals, of tension concerning the future, and conflict in society, the thought of bringing to fruition a statue of arguably Britain’s best literary figure may very well be seen as frivolous. Funding for the humanities, be it for sculpture or every other medium, is at all times open to query, which we understand.
“However, with the enthusiastic support of our private donors and the broader profit it’ll bring to Winchester, Hampshire, and lots of the Austen fans nationally and worldwide, we consider this project should proceed.”
Mr Jennings, whose statue of Sir John Betjeman stands at St Pancras Station, and who created the official coin effigy of King Charles, puts a powerful emphasis on the developing nature of the work, the “living process” of design. “There are various things I do know I would like to alter,” he told the audience at the general public launch on Monday of last week.
“Some people have said she looks slightly careworn. I don’t want her to appear like she’s exhausted. I would like the sculpture to precise her spirit.”
