Worlds of Jane Austen and JMW Turner set to collide at Harewood House

It is called ‘Austen and Turner: A Country House Encounter’. It is a landmark exhibition marking the 250th anniversaries of novelist Jane Austen (1775–1817) and artist JMW Turner (1775–1851).

The exhibition is co-curated by Jennie Batchelor, Marjorie Coughlan, Richard Johns and Chloe Wigston Smith from the University of York, working with Rebecca Burton, curator and archivist at Harewood House, and independent curators Jade Foster and Diane Howse.

For the first time, the exhibition brings together the literary and visual worlds of two of Britain’s most celebrated cultural figures, within the historic setting of Harewood House.

As part of the exhibition, the Trust is proud to unveil a major new portrait commission by contemporary visual artist Lela Harris, known for her sensitive and powerful depictions of figures who have often been overlooked or marginalised by history.

Harris has created a compelling new portrait of Miss Lambe, the only character of African heritage in Austen’s novels, from her unfinished manuscript Sanditon, which is also on display as part of the exhibition.

Miss Lambe is unique in Austen’s writing: a young, wealthy heiress of African heritage who had a ‘maid of her own’ and ‘was always of the first consequence in every plan’.

Her great fortune tempts unscrupulous characters to imagine acquiring her wealth through marriage.

Harris’s portrait of Miss Lambe remains unfinished, echoing both the unfinished nature of ‘Sanditon’ as well as highlighting the historic erasure of women of colour from archival spaces.

Harris’s portrait sits alongside new work by the award-winning poet and performer, Dr Rommi Smith, Harewood’s writer in residence for the duration of the exhibition.

Lela Harris said: “With this portrait I’ve really indulged my inner Austen fan girl as well as being very inspired by Jennie Batchelor’s collection of 18th-century fashion plates from the 'Lady’s Magazine’."

Neither Jane Austen nor JMW Turner had aristocratic backgrounds but they both had privileged access to the world of the British country house, whether as a commissioned artist, an invited guest, as tourists or through family connections.

Turner’s paintings of Harewood remain some of the most iconic works in Harewood’s collection. As a young, aspiring artist at the very start of his career, he was invited by the Lascelles family to paint the House and its landscape.

Nine paintings of the house, castle and its surrounding landscapes remain in the collection and are on display as part of the show.

Harewood provided the springboard for one of the most important sketching trips of Turner’s career, where he discovered his love of landscape and began to push the boundaries of watercolour painting.

Austen knew of the Lascelles family at Harewood, suggestively naming a character after them in Mansfield Park (1814), a novel that explores empire and slavery as key themes.

Miss Lambe is on display at Harewood from Thursday July 31 to October 19.