Austen Effusions Jane Odiwe

I am researching on Jane's images and came across this author/artist. I am very glad to find her.

source
http://austenblog.com/2005/03/13/review-effusions-of-fancy-by-jane-odiwe/
http://www.austeneffusions.com/#/home/4533119847

REVIEW: Effusions of Fancy by Jane Odiwe

Filed under: Staff Reviews — Mags @ 10:56 pm

We Janeites tend to be a sentimental lot, even those who like to pretend that they are hard-nosed objective scholars. Every biography of Jane Austen has a chapter on Tom Lefroy and the Mysterious Suitor-by-the-Sea. Let’s face it: we like to think that the woman who created timeless couples such as Lizzy and Darcy and Anne and Wentworth had romances of her own.

Jane Odiwe is no different. Like many Austen scholars, she was unsatisfied with the perception of Jane Austen as a spinster confined to a country life of little incident. Ms. Odiwe’s book, Effusions of Fancy, attempts to show that Jane Austen’s life was one of active enjoyments. The book is a collection of watercolor fantasies of Jane Austen’s young womanhood: traveling, dancing at balls, shopping for fashions and visiting the Pump Room at Bath, writing her novels and spending time with her beloved sister, Cassandra. The conceit of the book is that Cassandra has executed these paintings for her sister’s private entertainment, accompanied by letters purporting to be from Cassandra. The letters are inconsequential; the true pleasure of the book comes from the lovely illustrations.

Ms. Odiwe draws inspiration from the existing images of Jane, both the acknowledged and the disputed: she produces her own versions of Cassandra Austen’s two watercolors of Jane, as well as the famous silhouette and the infamous Rice portrait, acknowledging that the provenance of the latter is questionable. We have long suspected that the Austenian scholars who insist that the Rice portrait truly portrays the adolescent Jane Austen are at least partially motivated by dislike for Cassandra’s watercolor of Jane. Ms. Odiwe has redone that watercolor as an image of a young, pretty Jane with blooming cheeks and fashionably styled hair, her spinster’s cap not yet assumed. We are extremely fond of Cassandra Austen’s watercolor, and find Ms. Odiwe’s reimagined version of it delightful.

The book is a treat for those of us who love Georgian and Regency style. Ms. Odiwe shows knowledge of and appreciation of the fashions of the time. The artist has a light and delicate touch; gauzy wraps droop delicately from the elbows of pretty women clad in flowing gowns, curly tendrils of hair brushing their shoulders as they dance (and exchange meaningful glances) with handsome and dapper men.



The drawings in the book (and some others) also are available as note cards, packaged with their envelopes into individual cellophane packets, and are almost too pretty to use. One finds oneself saving them for most special notes to fellow Janeites who will appreciate them properly. The book is beautifully presented, tied in a blue and silver ribbon with a hangtag showing one of the illustrations. It is a perfect gift for a Janeite and a lovely publication to treasure.



Effusions of Fancy and the illustrated note cards are available through Jane Odiwe’s Web site, www.austeneffusions.com, as well as Amazon.co.uk, and in the U.S. through Jane Austen Books and from Gail Parker at teawithelizabeth AT aol DOT com (that’s an e-mail address; read it out loud! Your purchase through that outlet benefits JASNA’s Minnesota region).

http://www.austeneffusions.com/#/home/4533119847