Kendal based artist Lela Harris has been commissioned by Harewood House Trust to create a new drawing for their Austen & Turner: A Country House Encounter exhibition. The exhibition, which runs until 19 October, celebrates the 250th anniversary of the births of both landscape painter JMW Turner and novelist Jane Austen.
Ms Lambe, from Jane Austen’s unfinished novel Sanditon
As part of this commission Harris, who is best known for her portraits often depicting those who have been overlooked or marginalised by history, has created a charcoal drawing of Miss Lambe, a character in Jane Austen’s unfinished novel Sanditon.
Sanditon, which centres on Charlotte Heywood, the eldest of the daughters still at home in the large family of a country gentleman, was started by Austen in January 1817. She completed twelve chapters, before stopping work in mid-March 1817 due to illness. An illness that led to her eventual death shortly afterwards in July of that year at the age of 41.
Miss Lambe, who is described in the novel as a 17-year-old ‘half-mulatto’ (a derogatory and discriminatory term meaning of mixed Black African and white European ancestry) heiress from the West Indies, is unique in Austen’s novels as a character of African heritage. Throughout Sanditon, Miss Lambe attracts the attention of other characters for her wealth and the fact that she has a ‘maid of her own’ and ‘was always of the first consequence in every plan’.
Harris worked with historians to get her rendition of Ms Lambe just right
In order to create her portrait of Miss Lambe, Harris worked closely with historians at University of York and also relied on Austen’s description of Miss Lambe as ‘precious, chilly and tender’. She also referred to the preparatory collages which she had created before starting on the portrait which centred around an imagined visit by Miss Lambe to Harewood in 1817. This body of work included cut outs from catalogues, postcards and archival photographs of Black Victorians and twentieth-century workers.
Harris reflects Miss Lambe’s tenderness in the softness of the charcoal medium, as well as the sitter’s direct yet neutral gaze. The artist explained her creative choices, stating,
“Initially I was thinking about creating a portrait of Miss Lambe with a challenging expression but after a really great discussion with poet and writer Dr. Rommi Smith (writer in residence for the Austen and Turner exhibition), about how Black women are frequently depicted in historical art as masculine, over sexualised and confrontational – I very much wanted to embrace Austen’s description of Miss Lambe as ‘precious, chilly and tender’.”
Harris also took a literal interpretation of the term ‘chilly’, showing Miss Lambe wearing a fashionable Regency walking dress and bonnet, to keep the character warm as she adapted to the British climate. The artist also chose, in both a powerful nod to the source material, as well as the historic erasure of women of colour from archival spaces, to leave her portrait of Miss Lambe unfinished, with parts of her clothing incomplete.
The artist is an Austen fan herself
The artist, a self-confessed ‘Austen Fan-Girl’ added,
“I greatly admire Austen for the way she so casually introduces Miss Lambe into Sanditon. There seems to be no fanfare or over emphasis on her ethnicity especially with regards to her wealth which is really refreshing, so I’ve tried to integrate this feeling into her portrait. I’ve kept things deliberately simple and unfinished to reflect that we don’t know Miss Lambe’s full story.”
By centering the portrait around an imagined visit to Harewood by Miss Lambe in 1817, Harris ensures the exhibition’s host – made world famous as the setting of Princess May’s residence in the 2019 Downton Abbey film – is an active part of the artwork.
The work is further tied to Harewood House, with the very canvas of the portrait being 20th century paper found in a stationery cupboard at the stately home. Harris was clearly delighted to be able to make such a tangible connection to the past, saying,
“Using 20th Century paper from Harewood House’s stationery cupboard was a real joy. I think the writing papers help to anchor the drawing in Harewood’s history, and I very much enjoyed the challenge of working on the slightly different surfaces.”
Lela Harris has illustrated a new edition of The Colour Purple as well
This is not the first time Lela Harris has created a portrait based on a novel. In fact, since 2001, the self-taught artist has explored the relationship between text and image in several commissions for the Folio Society, including illustrating a new edition of The Colour Purple by Alice Walker and, more recently, James Baldwin’s defining work of modern literature, Giovanni’s Room.
The Austen & Turner: A Country House Encounter Exhibition runs at Harewood House until the 19th October. Lela Harris’s portrait of Miss Lambe will be on display from 31st July, alongside Turner inspired poetry from Dr. Rommi Smith.
For more information visit https://harewood.org/events/austen-and-turner-a-country-house-encounter/.
Credit for the photos goes to Tom Arber,permission to use given by The Space Inbetween PR
