Cassandra Austen
Cassandra Austen | |
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Cassandra Elizabeth Austen (9 January 1773 – 22 March 1845[1]) was an amateur English watercolourist and the elder sister of Jane Austen. The letters between her and Jane form a substantial foundation to scholarly understanding of the life of the novelist.
Childhood
Austen was born in 1773 at a rectory in
The sisters went to Mrs. Cawley, their uncle's sister, to be educated in 1783. Cawley lived initially in Oxford, and later in Southampton, and, when an epidemic broke out in Southampton, the Austen sisters returned to Steventon. Between 1785 and 1786 the sisters attended the Reading Abbey Girls' School. Jane was originally not to go, as she was considered to be too young for boarding school, but ended up attending along with her sister. In their mother's words, "if Cassandra's head had been going to be cut off, Jane would have hers cut off too".[2]
Art
The two Austen girls were also tutored at home in drawing and the piano. In 1791, Cassandra produced a series of circular illustrations of British monarchs for Jane's manuscript The History of England, which are noted to have resembled members of the Austen family more than royalty.[1] Cassandra Austen is also credited with having created two paintings of her sister. One, painted in 1804, is a back view of Jane seated by a tree. The other, an incomplete frontal portrait dated circa 1810,[3] was described by a family member as being "hideously unlike" Jane Austen's real appearance. This sketch is now housed in the National Portrait Gallery, London.[4]
Later life
George Austen was not wealthy and had supplemented his income as a country parson "by taking in pupils and tutoring them for Oxford".
After the death of her father in 1805, Austen, her sister, and their mother moved to Southampton, where they lived with their brother Francis Austen (family name 'Frank') and his family for five years. They moved again in 1809 to a cottage in the village of Chawton on their brother Edward's estate.
Jane died in 1817 and Cassandra is reported to have destroyed two thirds of Jane's letters in 1843, a couple of years before her own death. She passed the remainder on to relations as mementos.
Film portrayals
- Lucy Cohu plays Cassandra with Danielle Green playing a younger version in The Real Jane Austen (2002), starring Gillian Kearney as Jane.
- Greta Scacchi plays Cassandra in the BBC drama Miss Austen Regrets (2007), starring Olivia Williams as Jane.
- Anna Maxwell Martin plays Cassandra in the film Becoming Jane (2007), starring Anne Hathaway as Jane.
References
- ^ a b c "Cassandra Austen Archived 1 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine". (n.d.) Jane Austen Centre Magazine. Retrieved 31 December 2006.
- ^ "Jane Austen's Life and Family". (n.d.) The Jane Austen Information Page. Retrieved December 31, 2006.
- ^ Jane Austen (1810) by Cassandra Austen, National Portrait Gallery
- ^ "A New Portrait of Jane Austen Archived 15 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine". (2003). Jane Austen's Regency World. Retrieved December 31, 2006.
- ^ a b c d Berkshire Family Historian Archived 5 June 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved: 11 October 2007
- ^ St Nicholas parish history Retrieved: 11 October 2007
- ^ "St Nicholas, Chawton, Hampshire." (2004). Ukgraves.info. Retrieved: 31 December 2006.