Jane Austen sculpture plans to be revealed
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A Life-size bronze sculpture of famous author Jane Austen has been commissioned to mark two hundred years since the Hampshire author’s death.
Basingstoke sculptor Adam Roud has been commissioned to create the bronze sculpture, which will then be revealed in Basingstoke’s Market Square in time for the bi-centenary events in July 2017.
A maquette of the sculpture will be unveiled tonight by Basingstoke MP Maria Miller, who has been working with the Hampshire Cultural Trust to help the project progress. A maquette is a small preliminary sketch or wax/clay model, from which a work is elaborated.
Mrs Miller said: “Jane Austen is a writer of worldwide repute. Born in the borough, she is a woman who broke the mould in her generation. I am delighted that she is to be recognised in a sculpture by Adam Roud. It is a fitting tribute to her status not just as a local writer, but as one of the finest and most-loved authors the world has known.”
Jane Austen is one of the country’s most celebrated novelists and was born in 1775 in Steventon, only a few miles outside of Basingstoke, where her father was the vicar of St Nicholas Church. It was there that she penned the first draft of Pride and Prejudice.
The writer knew Basingstoke well, attending social gatherings at the Assembly Rooms in Market Square, near to where the Lloyds Bank is the present day.
Chief executive of Hampshire Cultural Trust, Janet Owen, said: “We are proud to be involved with this project in this, the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen’s death. There will be many events across the county in 2017 celebrating not only the writings of this extraordinary woman, but her life in her home county of Hampshire.”
There has been some debate over Austen’s actual appearance from Jane Austen academics, with the only confirmed portrait of the author during her lifetime is by her sister Cassandra.
Source: http://www.basingstokegazette.co.uk/news/15034800.Jane_Austen_statue_plans_to_be_revealed/