A Day in the Life of Jane Austen

Who among us wishes they could experience life through Jane Austen’s eyes for just one day? Thanks to What Jane Saw, a website by Professor Janine Barchas (The University of Texas at Austin), now we can. The website is an interactive “walk” through a retrospective of Sir Joshua Reynolds’s works at the British Institution at Pall Mall, London; according to What Jane Saw, Austen visited the retrospective on May 24, 1813. 

Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827), British Institution, Pall Mall, 1808. Aquatint on paper. "Pub. 1st April 1808, at R. Ackermann's Repository of Arts." From What Jane Saw.

Aside from being just plain cool, this website is a fabulous resource for those among us interested in British Romanticism, museum culture, and/or Austen and Reynolds specifically. Make sure you “walk” back to the South Room (West Side) to take in Reynolds’s Portrait of Dr. Charles Burney, Frances Burney’s father. Enjoy!