New website displays celebrities of Jane Austen's youth

Some still think of Jane Austen as a modest country mouse, wedded to the quiet sameness of village life. In fact, she loved going to London and went there often. When she was in town she went to the theatre, sampled the shops and attended fashionable gatherings. One of these latter events is replicated in virtual fashion by a website that launches on Saturday by conscientious American Janeites, called What Jane Saw.

In May 1813, a few months after the publication of Pride and Prejudice, Austen was in London, staying with her brother Henry. The event of the season was the exhibition of Sir Joshua Reynolds's paintings at the British Institution in Pall Mall. Lord Byron and the Prince Regent attended the opening. This was the first modern museum blockbuster, and the first retrospective exhibition in Britain dedicated to the work of a single artist (Reynolds died in 1792). Exactly 200 years ago, Austen herself went to see the exhibition, describing it enthusiastically in a letter to her sister, Cassandra.

Now this new website, designed by Austen expert Janine Barchas at the University of Texas, allows anyone to make their own virtual visit to the show. What Jane Saw has been reconstructed from the detailed visitors' guide that has survived, effusive accounts in newspapers, and architectural measurements of the British Institution's rooms (the building was demolished in the 1860s). The 141 paintings would have interested Austen not only for their artistic qualities, but because they included portraits of the celebrities of her youth, including Samuel Johnson; Omai, the South Sea prince; and the actor Sarah Siddons. Siddons herself attended to see the grand portrait of her younger self "as the Tragic Muse". Today's virtual visitors will see that she hung next to a huge oil of the King George III. Austen would surely have been amused to see that both sitters have been given thrones. Monarchs of culture were monarchs, too.