The accomplished Maria Cosway : Anglo-Italian artist, musician, salon hostess and educationalist (1759-1838)

Maria Cosway, seen in her arresting 1787 self-portrait engraved by Valentine Green, was one of the most remarkable women of the latest eighteenth century and earlier nineteenth century, yet today she is little known (Fig. 1). An Anglo-Italian, she won recognition in London not only as a highly determined artist, but also as a talented musician. She was a notable society hostess, and the correspondent to an international circle of friends, that included artists and architects such as David, Lawrence and Soane; the collectors, publishers and antiquarians -Townley, d'Hancarville, Ackermann and Douce; as well as men of power - General Paoli, Jefferson, Melzi and Cardinal Fesch. In the second part of her life, mainly spent in France and Italy, she established herself as an educationalist. All these elements of her life are interlinked, and it is this versatility that distinguishes her from other notable women of the later· Georgian and Romantic period. The serious reassessment of Maria Cosway has only recently begun, but here her personality and achievements will be examined within a biographical and cultural context. Despite her strong French connections, her outlook was essentially Anglo-Italian.
peer-reviewed