Episodes

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Portrait Of Elizabeth, By Sophia Hillan20150227Captured in a moment in time with faces forever staring at them and fingers ever pointing, the sitters from some well-known paintings get a chance to escape from the canvas, set the story straight or tell us their particular version of the story behind the image.

Painting: Portrait of Elizabeth Bridges Austen (1773-1808), housed at the Jane Austen's House Museum, Chawton

http://www.jane-austens-house-museum.org.uk/

Elizabeth Bridges Austen was the daughter of a baronet, Sir Brook Bridges of Goodnestone Park, near Sandwich in Kent. In December 1791 she married Edward Austen, elder brother of the celebrated novelist Jane Austen. Between 1793 and 1808, Elizabeth bore eleven children, and was not infrequently assisted in their care and education by her sisters-in-law, Jane and Cassandra.

Elizabeth died suddenly, on 10 October 1808, less than a fortnight after the birth of her eleventh child. Her illness, thought at the time to be no more than the `Godmersham cold' then afflicting the family, was later discovered to be puerperal fever. Shortly after her death, Edward belatedly offered a cottage on one of his estates to his mother and sisters, ending their peripatetic existence since the retirement in 1801 of the Rev. George Austen, and his death in1805. They chose Chawton Cottage, now the Jane Austen House Museum at Chawton, where Jane Austen spent her final years, perhaps the most creative of her life. It is in this house that the portrait of Elizabeth hangs today.

Sophia Hillan situates her story during this final illness, as Elizabeth, unaware of its severity, rails at the thought of having her sister-in-law Jane attend her. But just what has made Elizabeth so angry with Jane?

Writer ... Sophia Hillan

Reader ..... Laura Carmichael

Producer ..... Heather Larmour

What has made Elizabeth Austen so angry with her spinster sister-in-law Jane?

Short story series. Characters from famous paintings get a chance to tell their story.

Strandgade 30 by Elizabeth Kuti20150220

Captured in a moment in time with faces forever staring at them and fingers ever pointing, the sitters from some well-known paintings get a chance to escape from the canvas, set the story straight, or tell us their particular version of the story behind the image.

Characters from famous paintings finally get a chance to tell their story in this series of readings from Elizabeth Kuti, Sophia Hillan, and Niall Williams.

Strandgade 30 by Elizabeth Kuti

Painting: Hammershoi's Interior, 1899, National Gallery London.

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/vilhelm-hammershoi-interior

Vilhelm Hammershoi's sparse interior of the home he shared with his wife Ida - Strandgade 30 - shows Ida with her back to us. But could it be that she is holding something, something obscured from our view? Writer Elizabeth Kuti ponders the secret that Ida is hiding from us - and her husband.

Writer ..... Elizabeth Kuti
Reader ..... Trine Garrett
Producer ..... Heather Larmour

What is the secret that Vilhelm Hammershoi\u2019s wife Ida is hiding from us and her husband?

Short story series. Characters from famous paintings get a chance to tell their story.

That Moment by Niall Williams20150306

Captured in a moment in time with faces forever staring at them and fingers ever pointing, the sitters from some well-known paintings get a chance to escape from the canvas, set the story straight, or tell us their particular version of the story behind the image.

Characters from famous paintings finally get a chance to tell their story in this series of readings from Elizabeth Kuti, Sophia Hillan, and Niall Williams.

That Moment by Niall Williams

Painting: Nu a Contre-Jour by Pierre Bonnard, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium.

http://www.fine-arts-museum.be/fr/la-collection/pierre-bonnard-nu-a-contre-jour

When a young woman meets artist Pierre Bonnard in a Paris street, she creates an alter-ego for herself, one that lasts for thirty years and will see her immortalised in countless paintings.

Man Booker long-listed novelist Niall Williams (The History of the Rain) explores the relationship between French artist Pierre Bonnard and his muse - and later wife - Marthe, taking us back to a moment when he captured first captured her on canvas, in a small flat on the Rue Lepic in Paris.

Writer ...... Niall Williams
Reader ..... Selma Brook
Producer ..... Heather Larmour

A meeting with artist Pierre Bonnard changes a young woman\u2019s future - and her identity.

Short story series. Characters from famous paintings get a chance to tell their story.