Austen and Turner: A Country House Encounter

Turner’s Two Women with a Letter, ca 1830, Tate, as displayed in the exhibition.

Austen and Turner: A Country House Encounter is the first exhibition bringing together the work of these two legendary artistic figures as part of a project co-curated by Harewood House Trust and the Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies at the University of York.

In 1775, two icons of British culture were born into an era of huge social change. 250 years later, we celebrate Jane Austen and JMW Turner, uncovering their shared interest in the society and culture of the British country house and its landscape.

The exhibition encourages us to imagine an encounter between these iconic figures, whose innovative works recorded the Regency era. Through Austen’s and Turner’s eyes, the show explores the world of the country house in their time and their impact on how we think about stately homes today.

Thrilling, evocative and rarely seen paintings and manuscripts will bring the Regency country house to life. The original manuscript of Austen’s unfinished novel Sanditon joins early Turner watercolours and the very paintbox he used when he visited Harewood – all brought to northern England for the first time for this exhibition.

From Harewood’s own collection, see Turner’s famous paintings of the Harewood landscape and a first edition of Sense and Sensibility. Period costume, fashion plates, artistic tools and other objects illustrate the culture and colonial connections of this intruiging era in British society.

Also in the exhibition, contemporary art and creative writing bring a fresh perspective on how Turner’s and Austen’s work continue to shape our views of the country house today, in all of its complexities.