Maria Cosway
Encyclopedia
Maria Cosway was an Anglo
-Italian
artist, who exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in London
. She also worked in France, where she cultivated a large circle of friends and clients, and later in Italy. She commissioned the first portrait of Napoleon to be seen in England. Her paintings and engravings are held by the British Museum
, the New York Public Library
and the British Library
. Her work was included in recent exhibits at the National Portrait Gallery in London in 1995-1996 and the Tate Britain
in 2006.
Cosway was also an accomplished composer
, musician, and society hostess. She is notable as a romantic interest of the American
statesman Thomas Jefferson
in 1786 while he served as the American envoy to Paris. They kept up a lifelong correspondence until his death in 1826.
Cosway founded a girls' school in Paris, which she directed from 1803 to 1809. Soon after it closed, she founded a Catholic convent and girls' school in Lodi, which she directed until her death.
. An innkeeper at Livorno
, he had become very wealthy. Maria Hadfield's parents ran three inns for British aristocracy
taking the Grand Tour
in Tuscany
. Maria demonstrated artistic talent at a young age during her Roman Catholic convent education. She remained a devout Catholic all her life.
The large Hadfield family suffered four of its children being killed by a mentally ill nursemaid. She was caught after being overheard talking about murdering Maria. The nurse claimed that her young victims would be sent to Heaven after she killed them. She was sentenced to life in prison. Only Maria, her brothers Richard and George, and a younger sister Charlotte survived.
At her father's death, Maria expressed a strong desire to become a nun. Three years later, her mother returned with her to England; they settled in London
in 1779.
Her brother George Hadfield
became an architect
. He would later design Robert E. Lee's Arlington House
in Virginia
.
. From 1773 to 1778, she copied Old Masters at the Uffizi
Gallery. For her work, she was elected to the Academia del Disegno in Florence in 1778. She also went to Rome
, where she studied art under Batoni
. She studied with Anton Raphael Mengs
, Henry Fuseli
, and Joseph Wright of Derby
.
Two women artists, Angelica Kauffmann
and Mary Moser
, were among the original members of the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 1768. Kauffmann helped Maria Hadfield to participate in academy exhibitions. In 1781 she exhibited for the first time, showing the following three works: Rinaldo, Creusa appearing to Aeneas (engraved in mezzotint
by V. Green), and Like patience on a monument smiling at grief.
She went on to gain success as a painter of mythological scenes.
On 18 January 1781, Maria Hadfield married fellow artist, the celebrated miniature
portrait painter Richard Cosway
, in what is thought to be a marriage of convenience. He was 20 years her senior, known as a libertine, and was repeatedly unfaithful. Richard was "commonly described as resembling a monkey."
Her Italian manners were so foreign that her husband kept Maria secluded until she fully mastered the English language. But, he also realized his wife's talent and helped her to develop it. More than 30 of her works were displayed at the Royal Academy of Art from 1781 until 1801. She soon increased her reputation as an artist, especially when her portrait of the Duchess of Devonshire
in the character of Cynthia was exhibited. Among her personal acquaintances were Lady Lyttelton, the Hon. Mrs. Darner, the Countess of Aylesbury, Lady Cecilia Johnston, and the Marchioness of Townshend.
In 1784, the Cosways moved into Schomberg House
, Pall Mall
, which became a fashionable salon for London society. Richard was Principal Painter of the Prince of Wales
, and Maria served as hostess to artists, members of royalty including the Prince, and politicians including Horace Walpole, Gouverneur Morris
and James Boswell
. She could speak several languages, and due to her travels in Italy and France, she gained an international circle of friends. These included Angelica Schuyler Church
and artist John Trumbull
. Maria organized concerts and recitals for her guests. She became known as "The Goddess of Pall-Mall".
Richard and Maria had one child together, Louisa Paolina Angelica, but the couple eventually separated. Maria often travelled on the continent, on one occasion accompanied by Luigi Marchesi
, a famous Italian castrato
. (Richard Cosway had painted his portrait, which afterward was engraved by Luigi Schiavonetti
(1790).) At the same time Richard was having an open affair with Mary Moser, with whom he travelled for six months. In his notebooks he made "invidious comparisons between her and Mrs Cosway", implying that she was much more sexually responsive than his wife.
When staying in Lyon
, Maria Cosway made a pilgrimage to the shrine of the Virgin Mary at Loreto
. This was to fulfill a vow she had made after giving birth to a living child. Her young daughter died while the mother was on the continent.
Throughout this period Cosway cultivated international contacts in the art world. When she sent an engraving of her allegorical painting The Hours
to her friend the French painter Jacques-Louis David
, he replied, "On ne peut pas faire une poésie plus ingénieuse et plus naturelle" ("one could not create a more ingenious or more natural poetic work"). She became famous throughout France and had customers from all over the Continent.
Cosway also showed an interest in French politics. In 1797, then living on Oxford Street
in London, she commissioned artist Francesco Cossia to create what was to be the first portrait of Napoleon seen in England. Cosway may have been the first person in Britain to see the face of Napoleon. Her commission of the portrait would later be called the "earliest recorded evidence of British admiration for Napoleon." Later acquired by Sir John Soane, the painting is displayed in the Breakfast Room of Sir John Soane's Museum.
While living in Paris between 1801 to 1803, Cosway copied the paintings of the Old Masters from the Louvre
for publication as etchings in England. After the death of her daughter while she was in France, she did not finish the project.
Maria Cosway met Napoleon while copying Napoleon Crossing the Alps
by her friend David. She became close friends with Napoleon's uncle, Cardinal Joseph Fesch
. During the Peace of Amiens, she gave British visitors tours of the Cardinal's art collection. One historian pointed out that her admiration for Napoleon may have been inspired by her then-lover Pasquale Paoli
, a Corsica
n general in exile in London, who had been an associate of Bonaparte's.
to Thomas Jefferson, who was serving as the American Minister to France in Paris. The widower Jefferson was 43 and Cosway was 27 when they met. After their first meeting at the Grain Market (Halles aux Bleds), Jefferson told his scheduled dinner companion that he needed to tend to official business so that he could spend the evening with Cosway at the Palais Royal
.
Cosway and Jefferson shared an interest in art and architecture
; they attended exhibits throughout the city and countryside together. He would write of their adventures: "How beautiful was every object! the Pont du Neuilly
, the hills along the Seine
, the rainbows of the Machine of Marly
, the terraces of Saint Germain
, the chateaux, the gardens, the statues of Marly, the Pavilion of Louveciennes
... In the evening, when one took a retrospect of the day, what a mass of happiness had we travelled over!" Over the course of six weeks, Jefferson developed a romantic attachment to Cosway as they spent each day together.
Upon Cosway's departure for London at the insistence of her husband, Jefferson wrote her a love letter dated October 12–13, 1786. It has been called "The Dialogue of the Head vs. the Heart", in which he writes of his head's conversing with his heart, and the struggle between the practical and the romantic.
Scholars suggest that Jefferson was particularly partial to a romantic
attachment at this point in his life. His wife had died four years before; he had just learned of the death of his youngest daughter Lucy; and his other two daughters were away at school. At least one account held that Cosway began to develop stronger feelings for Jefferson, but when she traveled to Paris to meet him again, she found him more distant.
A devout Catholic who did not want to have children, she worried about pregnancy. Some historians believe that nothing further developed in their affair besides correspondence. Since Jefferson was very discreet, no one knows for sure about their relationship. Their letters would continue for the rest of Jefferson's life after she contacted him again, following his ending his correspondence while he was still in Paris. Historians such as Andrew Burstein have suggested that the relationship was romantic mostly on Jefferson's side, and that Cosway was his opposite, more artistic than rational. Both parties saved their letters to each other. Before Jefferson left Paris, he wrote to her, "I am going to America and you are going to Italy. One of us is going the wrong way, for the way will ever be wrong that leads us further apart."
Cosway introduced Jefferson to her friend Angelica Schuyler Church
, the sister-in-law of his rival Alexander Hamilton
. Church kept up a correspondence with both Jefferson and Cosway in later life; her correspondence with them is held at the University of Virginia
's archive.
At Monticello, Jefferson kept an engraving done by Luigi Schiavonetti
, from a drawing Richard Cosway made of Maria]. Cosway had Trumbull create a portrait of Jefferson which she kept in turn. The Italian government gave the portrait she commissioned as a gift to the American government, on the occasion of America's bicentennial in 1976. It now hangs in the White House
.
in Italy, where she lived in the north for three years. She returned to England after the death of her daughter at about age 10. Entering more deeply again into painting, Cosway completed several religious pictures for chapels.
Despite Napoleon's war with England, she traveled again to France. In Paris Cardinal Joseph Fesch persuaded her to establish a college for young ladies, which she managed from 1803 until 1809. The Duke of Lodi then invited her to Italy to establish a convent
and Catholic school for girls in Lodi (near Milan
), the Collegio delle Grazie. She directed the school until her death in 1838.
She returned to England for a brief period to care for her husband before he died in 1821. With the aid of her friend Sir John Soane, she auctioned Richard's large art collection, and used the funds for the convent school.
In a letter to Jefferson (held by the University of Virginia
), Cosway mourned the loss of old friends following the death of Angelica Schuyler Church. As a tribute to Church, Cosway designed a temple ceiling depicting the Three Graces
surrounding her friend's name. In June 1826, she wrote to the Italian engraver Giovanni Paolo Lasinio
Junior, respecting the publication of her husband's drawings in Florence.
Cosway died in 1838 at her school in Lodi.
. Two of her paintings that relate to a poem of Mary Robinson's
were acquired by the New York Public Library
. They were included in the exhibit Gothic Nightmares: Fuseli, Blake
and the Romantic
Imagination at the Tate Britain
museum in London in 2006.
From 1995 to 1996, the National Portrait Gallery in London held an exhibition entitled Richard and Maria Cosway: Regency Artists of Taste and Fashion, with 250 of their works on display.
Cosway drew The Progress of Female Dissipation and The Progress of Female Virtue, published in 1800. She also published a series of 12 designs, entitled The Winter's Day contributed to Boydell's
Shakespeare Gallery
and Macklin's
Poets. She etched all the plates in a large folio work entitled Gallery of the Louvre, represented by etchings executed solely by Mrs. Maria Cosway, with an Historical and Critical Description of all the Pictures which compose the Superb Collection, and a Biographical Sketch of the Life of each Painter, by J. Griffiths, &c. &c., (1802). Her numerous other plates, some in soft-ground etching, are held mostly by the British Library
.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
-Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
artist, who exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. She also worked in France, where she cultivated a large circle of friends and clients, and later in Italy. She commissioned the first portrait of Napoleon to be seen in England. Her paintings and engravings are held by the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
, the New York Public Library
New York Public Library
The New York Public Library is the largest public library in North America and is one of the United States' most significant research libraries...
and the British Library
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
. Her work was included in recent exhibits at the National Portrait Gallery in London in 1995-1996 and the Tate Britain
Tate Britain
Tate Britain is an art gallery situated on Millbank in London, and part of the Tate gallery network in Britain, with Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is the oldest gallery in the network, opening in 1897. It houses a substantial collection of the works of J. M. W. Turner.-History:It...
in 2006.
Cosway was also an accomplished composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, musician, and society hostess. She is notable as a romantic interest of the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
statesman Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
in 1786 while he served as the American envoy to Paris. They kept up a lifelong correspondence until his death in 1826.
Cosway founded a girls' school in Paris, which she directed from 1803 to 1809. Soon after it closed, she founded a Catholic convent and girls' school in Lodi, which she directed until her death.
Childhood in Italy
Cosway was born Maria Luisa Caterina Cecilia Hadfield to an English father of "lowly origin" and an Italian mother living in Florence, Italy in 1760. Her father, Charles Hadfield, is said by to have been a native of ShrewsburyShrewsbury
Shrewsbury is the county town of Shropshire, in the West Midlands region of England. Lying on the River Severn, it is a civil parish home to some 70,000 inhabitants, and is the primary settlement and headquarters of Shropshire Council...
. An innkeeper at Livorno
Livorno
Livorno , traditionally Leghorn , is a port city on the Tyrrhenian Sea on the western edge of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of approximately 160,000 residents in 2009.- History :...
, he had become very wealthy. Maria Hadfield's parents ran three inns for British aristocracy
Aristocracy
Aristocracy , is a form of government in which a few elite citizens rule. The term derives from the Greek aristokratia, meaning "rule of the best". In origin in Ancient Greece, it was conceived of as rule by the best qualified citizens, and contrasted with monarchy...
taking the Grand Tour
Grand Tour
The Grand Tour was the traditional trip of Europe undertaken by mainly upper-class European young men of means. The custom flourished from about 1660 until the advent of large-scale rail transit in the 1840s, and was associated with a standard itinerary. It served as an educational rite of passage...
in Tuscany
Tuscany
Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....
. Maria demonstrated artistic talent at a young age during her Roman Catholic convent education. She remained a devout Catholic all her life.
The large Hadfield family suffered four of its children being killed by a mentally ill nursemaid. She was caught after being overheard talking about murdering Maria. The nurse claimed that her young victims would be sent to Heaven after she killed them. She was sentenced to life in prison. Only Maria, her brothers Richard and George, and a younger sister Charlotte survived.
At her father's death, Maria expressed a strong desire to become a nun. Three years later, her mother returned with her to England; they settled in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1779.
Her brother George Hadfield
George Hadfield (architect)
George Hadfield was born in Livorno, Italy of English parents, who were hotel-keepers. He studied at the Royal Academy, and worked with James Wyatt for six years before emigrating to the United States....
became an architect
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
. He would later design Robert E. Lee's Arlington House
Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial
Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial, formerly named the Custis-Lee Mansion, is a Greek revival style mansion located in Arlington, Virginia, USA that was once the home of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. It overlooks the Potomac River, directly across from the National Mall in Washington,...
in Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
.
Early career
While still in Florence, Maria Hadfield studied art under Violente Cerroti and Johann ZoffanyJohann Zoffany
Johan Zoffany, Zoffani or Zauffelij was a German neoclassical painter, active mainly in England...
. From 1773 to 1778, she copied Old Masters at the Uffizi
Uffizi
The Uffizi Gallery , is a museum in Florence, Italy. It is one of the oldest and most famous art museums of the Western world.-History:...
Gallery. For her work, she was elected to the Academia del Disegno in Florence in 1778. She also went to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, where she studied art under Batoni
Pompeo Batoni
Pompeo Girolamo Batoni was an Italian painter whose style incorporated elements of the French Rococo, Bolognese classicism, and nascent Neoclassicism.-Biography:He was born in Lucca, the son of a goldsmith, Paolino Batoni...
. She studied with Anton Raphael Mengs
Anton Raphael Mengs
Anton Raphael Mengs was a German painter, active in Rome, Madrid and Saxony, who became one of the precursors to Neoclassical painting.- Biography :Mengs was born in 1728 at Ústí nad Labem in Bohemia...
, Henry Fuseli
Henry Fuseli
Henry Fuseli was a British painter, draughtsman, and writer on art, of Swiss origin.-Biography:...
, and Joseph Wright of Derby
Joseph Wright of Derby
Joseph Wright , styled Wright of Derby, was an English landscape and portrait painter. He has been acclaimed as "the first professional painter to express the spirit of the Industrial Revolution"....
.
Two women artists, Angelica Kauffmann
Angelica Kauffmann
Maria Anna Angelika/Angelica Katharina Kauffman was a Swiss-Austrian Neoclassical painter. Kauffman is the preferred spelling of her name; it is the form she herself used most in signing her correspondence, documents and paintings.- Early years :She was born at Chur in Graubünden, Switzerland,...
and Mary Moser
Mary Moser
Mary Moser was an English painter and one of the most celebrated women artists of 18th century Britain. One of only two female founding members of the Royal Academy , Moser is particularly noted for her depictions of flowers.-Life and career:London-born Moser was trained by her Swiss-born artist...
, were among the original members of the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 1768. Kauffmann helped Maria Hadfield to participate in academy exhibitions. In 1781 she exhibited for the first time, showing the following three works: Rinaldo, Creusa appearing to Aeneas (engraved in mezzotint
Mezzotint
Mezzotint is a printmaking process of the intaglio family, technically a drypoint method. It was the first tonal method to be used, enabling half-tones to be produced without using line- or dot-based techniques like hatching, cross-hatching or stipple...
by V. Green), and Like patience on a monument smiling at grief.
She went on to gain success as a painter of mythological scenes.
Marriage and social success
Miniature
A miniature is a small-scale reproduction, or a small variation. It may refer to:* Miniature , a small painting in an illuminated text** Persian miniature, a small painting in an illuminated text or album...
portrait painter Richard Cosway
Richard Cosway
Richard Cosway was a leading English portrait painter—more accurately a miniaturist—of the Regency era. He was a contemporary of John Smart, George Engleheart, William Wood, and Richard Crosse...
, in what is thought to be a marriage of convenience. He was 20 years her senior, known as a libertine, and was repeatedly unfaithful. Richard was "commonly described as resembling a monkey."
Her Italian manners were so foreign that her husband kept Maria secluded until she fully mastered the English language. But, he also realized his wife's talent and helped her to develop it. More than 30 of her works were displayed at the Royal Academy of Art from 1781 until 1801. She soon increased her reputation as an artist, especially when her portrait of the Duchess of Devonshire
Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire
Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire , formerly Lady Georgiana Spencer, was the first wife of the 5th Duke of Devonshire, and mother of the 6th Duke of Devonshire. Her father, the 1st Earl Spencer, was a great-grandson of the 1st Duke of Marlborough. Her niece was Lady Caroline Lamb...
in the character of Cynthia was exhibited. Among her personal acquaintances were Lady Lyttelton, the Hon. Mrs. Darner, the Countess of Aylesbury, Lady Cecilia Johnston, and the Marchioness of Townshend.
In 1784, the Cosways moved into Schomberg House
Schomberg House
Schomberg House is a mansion on the south side of Pall Mall in central London which has a colourful history. Only the street facade survives today. It was built for Meinhardt Schomberg, 3rd Duke of Schomberg, a Huguenot general in the service of the British crown...
, Pall Mall
Pall Mall, London
Pall Mall is a street in the City of Westminster, London, and parallel to The Mall, from St. James's Street across Waterloo Place to the Haymarket; while Pall Mall East continues into Trafalgar Square. The street is a major thoroughfare in the St James's area of London, and a section of the...
, which became a fashionable salon for London society. Richard was Principal Painter of the Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the heir apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the 15 other independent Commonwealth realms...
, and Maria served as hostess to artists, members of royalty including the Prince, and politicians including Horace Walpole, Gouverneur Morris
Gouverneur Morris
Gouverneur Morris , was an American statesman, a Founding Father of the United States, and a native of New York City who represented Pennsylvania in the Constitutional Convention of 1787. He was a signatory to the Articles of Confederation. Morris was also an author of large sections of the...
and James Boswell
James Boswell
James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck was a lawyer, diarist, and author born in Edinburgh, Scotland; he is best known for the biography he wrote of one of his contemporaries, the English literary figure Samuel Johnson....
. She could speak several languages, and due to her travels in Italy and France, she gained an international circle of friends. These included Angelica Schuyler Church
Angelica Schuyler Church
Angelica Schuyler Church was the eldest daughter of Continental Army General Philip Schuyler, wife of British MP John Barker Church, sister of Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton , and a prominent member of the social elite wherever she lived; first in New York, then in Paris, London and New York again...
and artist John Trumbull
John Trumbull
John Trumbull was an American artist during the period of the American Revolutionary War and was notable for his historical paintings...
. Maria organized concerts and recitals for her guests. She became known as "The Goddess of Pall-Mall".
Richard and Maria had one child together, Louisa Paolina Angelica, but the couple eventually separated. Maria often travelled on the continent, on one occasion accompanied by Luigi Marchesi
Luigi Marchesi
Luigi Marchesi was an Italian castrato singer, one of the most prominent and charismatic to appear in Europe during the second half of the eighteenth century.-Biography:Luigi Ludovico Marchesi was born in Milan...
, a famous Italian castrato
Castrato
A castrato is a man with a singing voice equivalent to that of a soprano, mezzo-soprano, or contralto voice produced either by castration of the singer before puberty or one who, because of an endocrinological condition, never reaches sexual maturity.Castration before puberty prevents a boy's...
. (Richard Cosway had painted his portrait, which afterward was engraved by Luigi Schiavonetti
Luigi Schiavonetti
Luigi Schiavonetti , Italian reproductive engraver and etcher, was born at Bassano in Venetia.After having studied art for several years he was employed by Testolini, an engraver of very indifferent abilities, to execute imitations of Bartolozzi's works, which he passed off as his own...
(1790).) At the same time Richard was having an open affair with Mary Moser, with whom he travelled for six months. In his notebooks he made "invidious comparisons between her and Mrs Cosway", implying that she was much more sexually responsive than his wife.
When staying in Lyon
Lyon
Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....
, Maria Cosway made a pilgrimage to the shrine of the Virgin Mary at Loreto
Loreto (AN)
Loreto is a hilltown and comune of the Italian province of Ancona, in the Marche. It is mostly famous as the seat of the Basilica della Santa Casa, a popular Catholic pilgrimage site.-Location:...
. This was to fulfill a vow she had made after giving birth to a living child. Her young daughter died while the mother was on the continent.
Work in Napoleonic France
The Hours (engraving)
thumb|right|Coloured impression of the stipple engraving by Francesco Bartolozzi, mounted in an [[Acid-free paper|acid-free]] environment and placed behind conservation glass to prevent [[fauxing]]....
to her friend the French painter Jacques-Louis David
Jacques-Louis David
Jacques-Louis David was an influential French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era...
, he replied, "On ne peut pas faire une poésie plus ingénieuse et plus naturelle" ("one could not create a more ingenious or more natural poetic work"). She became famous throughout France and had customers from all over the Continent.
Cosway also showed an interest in French politics. In 1797, then living on Oxford Street
Oxford Street
Oxford Street is a major thoroughfare in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, United Kingdom. It is Europe's busiest shopping street, as well as its most dense, and currently has approximately 300 shops. The street was formerly part of the London-Oxford road which began at Newgate,...
in London, she commissioned artist Francesco Cossia to create what was to be the first portrait of Napoleon seen in England. Cosway may have been the first person in Britain to see the face of Napoleon. Her commission of the portrait would later be called the "earliest recorded evidence of British admiration for Napoleon." Later acquired by Sir John Soane, the painting is displayed in the Breakfast Room of Sir John Soane's Museum.
While living in Paris between 1801 to 1803, Cosway copied the paintings of the Old Masters from the Louvre
Louvre
The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
for publication as etchings in England. After the death of her daughter while she was in France, she did not finish the project.
Maria Cosway met Napoleon while copying Napoleon Crossing the Alps
Napoleon Crossing the Alps
Napoleon Crossing the Alps is the title given to the five versions of an oil on canvas equestrian portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte painted by the French artist Jacques-Louis David between 1801 and 1805...
by her friend David. She became close friends with Napoleon's uncle, Cardinal Joseph Fesch
Joseph Fesch
Joseph Fesch was a French cardinal, closely associated with the family of Napoleon Bonaparte. He was also one of the most famous art collectors of his period.-Biography:Fesch was born at Ajaccio in Corsica...
. During the Peace of Amiens, she gave British visitors tours of the Cardinal's art collection. One historian pointed out that her admiration for Napoleon may have been inspired by her then-lover Pasquale Paoli
Pasquale Paoli
Filippo Antonio Pasquale di Paoli , was a Corsican patriot and leader, the president of the Executive Council of the General Diet of the People of Corsica...
, a Corsica
Corsica
Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....
n general in exile in London, who had been an associate of Bonaparte's.
Relationship with Thomas Jefferson
In August 1786, the Cosways were introduced by John TrumbullJohn Trumbull
John Trumbull was an American artist during the period of the American Revolutionary War and was notable for his historical paintings...
to Thomas Jefferson, who was serving as the American Minister to France in Paris. The widower Jefferson was 43 and Cosway was 27 when they met. After their first meeting at the Grain Market (Halles aux Bleds), Jefferson told his scheduled dinner companion that he needed to tend to official business so that he could spend the evening with Cosway at the Palais Royal
Palais Royal
The Palais-Royal, originally called the Palais-Cardinal, is a palace and an associated garden located in the 1st arrondissement of Paris...
.
Cosway and Jefferson shared an interest in art and architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
; they attended exhibits throughout the city and countryside together. He would write of their adventures: "How beautiful was every object! the Pont du Neuilly
Neuilly-sur-Seine
Neuilly-sur-Seine is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.Although Neuilly is technically a suburb of Paris, it is immediately adjacent to the city and directly extends it. The area is composed of mostly wealthy, select residential...
, the hills along the Seine
Seine
The Seine is a -long river and an important commercial waterway within the Paris Basin in the north of France. It rises at Saint-Seine near Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plateau, flowing through Paris and into the English Channel at Le Havre . It is navigable by ocean-going vessels...
, the rainbows of the Machine of Marly
Château de Marly
The Château de Marly was a relatively small French royal residence located in what has become Marly-le-Roi, the commune that existed at the edge of the royal park. The town that originally grew up to service the château is now a dormitory community for Paris....
, the terraces of Saint Germain
Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye
The Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye is a royal palace in the commune of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, in the département of Yvelines, about 19 km west of Paris, France. Today, it houses the Musée d'Archéologie Nationale ....
, the chateaux, the gardens, the statues of Marly, the Pavilion of Louveciennes
Château de Louveciennes
The Château de Louveciennes in Louveciennes, in the Yvelines department of France, is composed of the château itself, constructed at the end of the 17th century. It was then expanded and redecorated by Ange-Jacques Gabriel for Madame du Barry in the 18th century, and the music pavilion was...
... In the evening, when one took a retrospect of the day, what a mass of happiness had we travelled over!" Over the course of six weeks, Jefferson developed a romantic attachment to Cosway as they spent each day together.
Upon Cosway's departure for London at the insistence of her husband, Jefferson wrote her a love letter dated October 12–13, 1786. It has been called "The Dialogue of the Head vs. the Heart", in which he writes of his head's conversing with his heart, and the struggle between the practical and the romantic.
Scholars suggest that Jefferson was particularly partial to a romantic
Romantic love
Romance is the pleasurable feeling of excitement and mystery associated with love.In the context of romantic love relationships, romance usually implies an expression of one's love, or one's deep emotional desires to connect with another person....
attachment at this point in his life. His wife had died four years before; he had just learned of the death of his youngest daughter Lucy; and his other two daughters were away at school. At least one account held that Cosway began to develop stronger feelings for Jefferson, but when she traveled to Paris to meet him again, she found him more distant.
A devout Catholic who did not want to have children, she worried about pregnancy. Some historians believe that nothing further developed in their affair besides correspondence. Since Jefferson was very discreet, no one knows for sure about their relationship. Their letters would continue for the rest of Jefferson's life after she contacted him again, following his ending his correspondence while he was still in Paris. Historians such as Andrew Burstein have suggested that the relationship was romantic mostly on Jefferson's side, and that Cosway was his opposite, more artistic than rational. Both parties saved their letters to each other. Before Jefferson left Paris, he wrote to her, "I am going to America and you are going to Italy. One of us is going the wrong way, for the way will ever be wrong that leads us further apart."
Cosway introduced Jefferson to her friend Angelica Schuyler Church
Angelica Schuyler Church
Angelica Schuyler Church was the eldest daughter of Continental Army General Philip Schuyler, wife of British MP John Barker Church, sister of Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton , and a prominent member of the social elite wherever she lived; first in New York, then in Paris, London and New York again...
, the sister-in-law of his rival Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton was a Founding Father, soldier, economist, political philosopher, one of America's first constitutional lawyers and the first United States Secretary of the Treasury...
. Church kept up a correspondence with both Jefferson and Cosway in later life; her correspondence with them is held at the University of Virginia
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
's archive.
At Monticello, Jefferson kept an engraving done by Luigi Schiavonetti
Luigi Schiavonetti
Luigi Schiavonetti , Italian reproductive engraver and etcher, was born at Bassano in Venetia.After having studied art for several years he was employed by Testolini, an engraver of very indifferent abilities, to execute imitations of Bartolozzi's works, which he passed off as his own...
, from a drawing Richard Cosway made of Maria]. Cosway had Trumbull create a portrait of Jefferson which she kept in turn. The Italian government gave the portrait she commissioned as a gift to the American government, on the occasion of America's bicentennial in 1976. It now hangs in the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
.
Later life
Cosway eventually moved back to the continent of Europe. She travelled with her brother George HadfieldGeorge Hadfield (architect)
George Hadfield was born in Livorno, Italy of English parents, who were hotel-keepers. He studied at the Royal Academy, and worked with James Wyatt for six years before emigrating to the United States....
in Italy, where she lived in the north for three years. She returned to England after the death of her daughter at about age 10. Entering more deeply again into painting, Cosway completed several religious pictures for chapels.
Despite Napoleon's war with England, she traveled again to France. In Paris Cardinal Joseph Fesch persuaded her to establish a college for young ladies, which she managed from 1803 until 1809. The Duke of Lodi then invited her to Italy to establish a convent
Convent
A convent is either a community of priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, or nuns, or the building used by the community, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion...
and Catholic school for girls in Lodi (near Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
), the Collegio delle Grazie. She directed the school until her death in 1838.
She returned to England for a brief period to care for her husband before he died in 1821. With the aid of her friend Sir John Soane, she auctioned Richard's large art collection, and used the funds for the convent school.
In a letter to Jefferson (held by the University of Virginia
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
), Cosway mourned the loss of old friends following the death of Angelica Schuyler Church. As a tribute to Church, Cosway designed a temple ceiling depicting the Three Graces
Charites
In Greek mythology, a Charis is one of several Charites , goddesses of charm, beauty, nature, human creativity and fertility. They ordinarily numbered three, from youngest to oldest: Aglaea , Euphrosyne , and Thalia . In Roman mythology they were known as the Gratiae, the "Graces"...
surrounding her friend's name. In June 1826, she wrote to the Italian engraver Giovanni Paolo Lasinio
Giovanni Paolo Lasinio
Giovanni Paolo Lasinio was an Italian engraver.He was the son of the engraver Carlo Lasinio, and together with Rossi engraved forty-four plates of the Campo Santo at Pisa , and took part in the decorations of the Galleries at Florence and Turin. He executed the plates for Ippolito Rosellini's...
Junior, respecting the publication of her husband's drawings in Florence.
Cosway died in 1838 at her school in Lodi.
Collections
Cosway's engravings from the Old Masters of the Louvre are held in the collection of the British MuseumBritish Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
. Two of her paintings that relate to a poem of Mary Robinson's
Mary Robinson (poet)
Mary Robinson was an English poet and novelist. During her lifetime she is known as 'the English Sappho'...
were acquired by the New York Public Library
New York Public Library
The New York Public Library is the largest public library in North America and is one of the United States' most significant research libraries...
. They were included in the exhibit Gothic Nightmares: Fuseli, Blake
William Blake
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
and the Romantic
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
Imagination at the Tate Britain
Tate Britain
Tate Britain is an art gallery situated on Millbank in London, and part of the Tate gallery network in Britain, with Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is the oldest gallery in the network, opening in 1897. It houses a substantial collection of the works of J. M. W. Turner.-History:It...
museum in London in 2006.
From 1995 to 1996, the National Portrait Gallery in London held an exhibition entitled Richard and Maria Cosway: Regency Artists of Taste and Fashion, with 250 of their works on display.
Works and reproductions
Cosway's principal works exhibited at the Royal Academy and later engraved are:- Clytie by V. Green
- The Descent from the Cross by V. Green
- Astrea instructing Arthegal by V. Green
- The Judgment on Korah, Dathan, and Abiram by S. W. Reynolds
- A Persian by Emma Smith
- H.R.H. the Princess of Wales and the Princess Charlotte by S. W. Reynolds
- The HoursThe Hours (engraving)thumb|right|Coloured impression of the stipple engraving by Francesco Bartolozzi, mounted in an [[Acid-free paper|acid-free]] environment and placed behind conservation glass to prevent [[fauxing]]....
by Francesco BartolozziFrancesco BartolozziFrancesco Bartolozzi was an Italian engraver, whose most productive period was spent in London.He was born in Florence... - Lodona by Francesco Bartolozzi
- The Guardian Angel, by S. Phillips
- Going to the Temple, by P. W. Tomkins
- The Birth of the Thames, by P. W. Tomkins
- Creusa appearing to Aeneas by V. Green
- The Preservation of Shadrach, Meshac, and Abednego, by W. S. Reynolds
- Louis VII, King of France, before Becket's Tomb, by W. Sharp.
Cosway drew The Progress of Female Dissipation and The Progress of Female Virtue, published in 1800. She also published a series of 12 designs, entitled The Winter's Day contributed to Boydell's
John Boydell
John Boydell was an 18th-century British publisher noted for his reproductions of engravings. He helped alter the trade imbalance between Britain and France in engravings and initiated a British tradition in the art form...
Shakespeare Gallery
Boydell Shakespeare Gallery
The Boydell Shakespeare Gallery in London, England, was the first stage of a three-part project initiated in November 1786 by engraver and publisher John Boydell in an effort to foster a school of British history painting...
and Macklin's
Charles Macklin
Charles Macklin , originally Cathal MacLochlainn , was an actor and dramatist born in Culdaff, a village on the scenic Inishowen Peninsula in County Donegal, part of the Province of Ulster in the north of Ireland. He was one of the most distinguished actors of his day, equally in tragedy and comedy...
Poets. She etched all the plates in a large folio work entitled Gallery of the Louvre, represented by etchings executed solely by Mrs. Maria Cosway, with an Historical and Critical Description of all the Pictures which compose the Superb Collection, and a Biographical Sketch of the Life of each Painter, by J. Griffiths, &c. &c., (1802). Her numerous other plates, some in soft-ground etching, are held mostly by the British Library
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
.
Further reading
- Burnell, Carol. Divided Affections: The Extraordinary Life of Maria Cosway, Celebrity Artist and Thomas Jefferson's Impossible Love
- Byrd, Max. Jefferson (1993)
- Lloyd, Stephen. Richard and Maria Cosway, Edinburgh and London (1995)
- Barnett, Gerald. Richard and Maria Cosway: A Biography
- Beran, Michael Knox. Jefferson's Demons: Portrait of a Restless Mind
- Beretti, Francis (ed.). Pascal Paoli à Maria Cosway, Lettres et documents, 1782-1803, Oxford, Voltaire Foundation (2003)
- Brodie, Fawn. Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History. New York: Norton (1974)
- Halliday, E. M. Understanding Thomas Jefferson
- Kaminski, John P. Jefferson in Love: The Love Letters Between Thomas Jefferson and Maria Cosway
- McCullough, DavidDavid McCulloughDavid Gaub McCullough is an American author, narrator, historian, and lecturer. He is a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian award....
. John Adams
Film
- Jefferson in ParisJefferson in ParisJefferson in Paris is a 1995 Franco-American historical drama film directed by James Ivory . The screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala is a semi-fictional account of Thomas Jefferson's tenure as the Ambassador of the United States to France prior to his Presidency, and his alleged relationships with...
, 1995 movie by Merchant and Ivory in which Maria Cosway is portrayed by Greta ScacchiGreta ScacchiGreta Scacchi is an Italian-Australian actor.-Early life:Scacchi was born Greta Gracco in Milan, Italy, on 18 February 1960, the daughter of Luca Scacchi Gracco, an Italian art dealer and painter, and Pamela Carsaniga, an English dancer and antiques dealer...
External links
- Jefferson in Love: The Love Letters Between Thomas Jefferson and Maria Cosway at Google Books
- Cosway's paintings on display at the Tate BritainTate BritainTate Britain is an art gallery situated on Millbank in London, and part of the Tate gallery network in Britain, with Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is the oldest gallery in the network, opening in 1897. It houses a substantial collection of the works of J. M. W. Turner.-History:It...
- Burnell, Carol Divided Affections