Austen Statues

 I see that another statue of Jane Austen has been unveiled, this time in Winchester Cathedral close. Fair enough – it's her 250th anniversary year, and she died at Winchester and is buried in the cathedral. The statue is by Martin Jennings, who has a good record with this sort of thing, having created the excellent statue of Philip Larkin in Hull (a 'major statue of concern', according to the city council, who at the time were dancing to the tune of Black Lives Matter) and the even better John Betjeman at St Pancras station. The trouble with Jane Austen is, of course, that we have no good idea of what she actually looked like, the only reliable image being an amateurish sketch by her sister Cassandra. Jennings (who's pictured above, at the left of the group of three worthies) has posed her as a forceful, even defiant figure, with head held high and chest thrown out, her face set almost grimly as she gazes off to her left, while her right hand rests on her famous little writing table. It's certainly well done, but is it Jane Austen? It seems to me that it doesn't suggest anything of her quiet, observant humour. For that, I think the bust of Austen that stands in the town of Alton is more suggestive, though it is of lower quality as sculpture.

And there's another Jane Austen statue in Hampshire, outside the museum in Basingstoke. This one shows her in motion (like Jennings's statue of Larkin), walking across the marketplace with her outdoor clothes on and a book under her arm. As with the Winchester Cathedral statue, she seems a more angular and austere figure than the Jane portrayed in her sister's sketch, or the one that shows through in the writings of those who knew her. Not that it matters. At least none of these Austen statues have plumbed the depths of recent efforts portraying Diana and the late Queen, and for that we – and the shade of Jane – should be grateful.

[Please ignore the Google links in the above. They crept in while I wasn't looking.]