Jane Austen statue ‘will make our cathedral Disneyland’
ERECTING a Jane Austen statue in a cathedral risks turning the building into ‘ Disneyland’, according to critics of the plan.
The £100,000 life- sized artwork is due to be installed at Winchester Cathedral next year to mark the 250th anniversary of the author’s birth.
However, sculptor Martin Jennings – known for his portrait of King Charles III for the Royal Mint – faced criticism at a public meeting after the former chairman of the Jane Austen Society suggested the author would have disapproved.
Austen expert Elizabeth Proudman attacked the plans, saying the installation
‘Come and have a selfie with Jane’
would turn the historic monument into a magnet for ‘American tourists’ wanting to take ‘selfies’.
The 5ft 7in statue, which the cathedral hopes to erect in its inner close, portrays Austen rising from her table as someone arrives at the door, moving in front of her writing as if to hide it – a reference to her keeping her writing private.
Mrs Proudman said of the plans: ‘We don’t know what she looked like, but we do know that she was a very private person.
‘She despised publicity – this statue speaks for feminism, but that is not what Jane Austen was all about. The inner close is where the monks had a private area, it’s a special place.
‘I don’t think we want to turn it into “Disneyland on Itchen”, I don’t think the inner close is the place to attract a lot of lovely American tourists to come and have a selfie with Jane Austen.’ She also pointed out that while the Pride and Prejudice author died in Winchester and was buried in the cathedral, she was not actually from the city.
The Austen expert added: ‘She was not a Winchester woman, she was a Hampshire woman.’
Lizzie Dunford, director of Jane Austen’s House, also questioned the design, saying: ‘This is a 21st century sculpture and should reflect when it’s made. I think any statue should encompass her sense of strength and self-belief, even if that doesn’t necessarily look modest. Also, why didn’t you choose to have her writing?’
Responding to the criticism of his unveiling of his preliminary model, Mr Jennings emphasised that the sculpture was a ‘work of imagination’.
He said: ‘We don’t know very much at all about what she looked like. In life, she may have been aghast at being represented in this way. But after death, she belongs to all of us.
‘I don’t think we have, in any way, invaded her private personality – she was sure of her worth as a writer.’
Canon Roland Riem, vice-dean at Winchester Cathedral, said the artwork was not designed by committee and urged people to trust in the sculptor’s creative gifts.