See the Forgotten Paintings Made by Jane Austen’s Older Sister, Cassandra A new exhibition at the Jane Austen House in England includes six artworks that are going on public display for the first time Cassandra Austen's 1795 hand-drawn copy of a plate from a 1786 drawing instruction manual Luke Shears / Jane Austen House When Jane Austen died on July 18, 1817, her older sister, Cassandra, was overcome with grief. “She was the sun of my life, the gilder of every pleasure, the soother of every sorrow. I had not a thought concealed from her, and it is as if I had lost a part of myself,” Cassandra wrote in a letter later that month. Years later, Cassandra burned the vast majority of her younger sister’s 3,000 letters, leaving only around 160 for the benefit of researchers, biographers and Janeites, as the author’s devotees are known. Questions began to swirl about her motivations. Was she protecting her sister’s legacy? What was she hiding? Cassandra’s controversial decision is “the act for which she is perhaps best known today,” as Artnet’s Jo Lawson-Tancred writes. Meanwhile, her own work as an accomplished watercolor artist whose paintings may have inspired parts of Jane’s novels has been largely forgotten. Now, an exhibition at the Jane Austen House in the English village of Chawton has assembled the largest public display of Cassandra’s artworks for a reconsideration of her legacy beyond the bonfire. Cassandra's 1802 watercolor of a man crossing a wintry landscape with his dog Luke Shears / Jane Austen House “The Art of Cassandra” features ten works. Six are recent donations or loans to the museum from descendants of the Austen family that are going on public display for the first time. “This is a small display but a truly exciting one,” Sophie Reynolds, the head of collections, interpretation and engagement at the museum, tells the Guardian’s Jamie Grierson. Cassandra's depiction of Elizabeth I for her sister's The History of England, a parody of history textbooks Public domain via Wikimedia Commons While some of Cassandra’s works are original portraits of family members like James, one of the Austen sisters’ six brothers, or watercolor landscapes, many are detailed reproductions of images from books and prints, per a statement from the museum. The exhibition’s curator, Janine Barchas, an Austen scholar at the University of Texas at Austin, has found seven prints or bookplates that match Cassandra’s artworks. These sources provide rich insights into the reading habits and tastes of the Austen sisters. The Austen sisters were about three years apart in age, and they were very close. Their artistic talents first converged as early as 1791, when Jane, then 15, wrote a parody of British history textbooks called The History of England. She dedicated the book to Cassandra, who provided drawings of historical figures like Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots. Cassandra’s best-known work is a portrait of Jane that now resides in the National Portrait Gallery in London. “Her skill was akin to Jane’s own—neat and careful, with delicacy and lightness of touch, so to see them is a pleasure in itself—but more than that, for those interested in Jane Austen, Cassandra’s artworks also remind us of the many paintings and drawings in Jane’s novels,” says Reynolds in the statement.Reynolds points to the character Elinor Dashwood’s drawings in Jane’s first published novel, Sense and Sensibility. Upon moving to Barton Cottage, the women of the Dashwood family “make the house a home” by, among other things, arranging Elinor’s drawings on the walls of their sitting room, Reynolds says. The cottage where Jane spent the last eight years of her life and worked on all six of her novels is an ideal setting for Cassandra’s artworks, now carefully arranged on the sitting room walls. “Not since Cassandra’s creative years in this very cottage have so many of her surviving artworks been gathered together in one place,” says Barchas in the statement. “The Art of Cassandra” will be on view at the Jane Austen House in Chawton, England, from April 29 to June 8, 2025. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.