First Impressions: Jane Austen and JMW Turner in British Sign Language (BSL)

Описание: In the summer of 1797, Turner arrived at Harewood.

He was invited by Edward, Viscount Lascelles, son of the 1st Earl of Harewood, to produce a series of paintings of the house and its landscape. Sometimes referred to as ‘country house portraits’, this type of painting was designed to communicate the wealth, status and taste of its owner.

Turner’s ‘portraits’ of Harewood were displayed in the Lascelles family’s London home alongside a range of similar views of the estate, such as those by Turner’s friend and artistic rival, Thomas Girtin. Here, their stylish Palladian house stands at the heart of a naturalistic Capability Brown landscape. Despite being portrayed as timeless, these features were not yet thirty years old. Together, art and landscape create an illusion to
naturalise the Lascelles family, whose wealth and status derived from the Caribbean, within a distinctly English view.

Jane Austen also used houses as symbols of status, perhaps most memorably in Elizabeth Bennet’s tour of the grand, well-ordered Pemberley in Pride and Prejudice.

In carefully tracing Elizabeth’s changing understanding, Austen describes Pemberley as a reflection of the Darcy family’s status, wealth and taste, through which a more personal portrait of Darcy himself manages to break through.

Austen & Turner: A Country House Encounter
Exhibition open daily, 10.30am - 4pm
2 May - 19 October 2025
https://harewood.org/events/austen-an...

Made in collaboration with Topp Language Solutions.

Topp Language Solutions provides British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation and access services, helping to make arts, heritage, education, and public spaces more inclusive for Deaf audiences. They work with NHS Trusts, councils, schools, museums, galleries, and charities across the UK.