Maria Coswayaus classic

Maria Cosway (* 11 June 1760 in Florence, Grand Duchy of Tuscany; † 5 January 1838 in Lodi, Kingdom of Lombardo-Veneto) was an English-Italian painter, etcher, educator and composer.

Life

Maria Cosway was the daughter of the English-born innkeeper Charles Hadfield († 1776) and his wife Isabella, née Pocock († 1809). The father had achieved considerable wealth through several restaurants in Livorno. The family ran three hotels in Florence, where British aristocrats in particular stayed on their Grand Tour. A tragic accident overshadowed her childhood when a mentally ill nanny killed four of her siblings. Her brother George (1763-1826), later an important American architect, was one of the siblings who survived the mad act of the domestic servant.

At the age of 4, she was placed in a Catholic convent for her education. There, Maria already showed significant artistic talent. In addition to painting and singing, her skills included playing the harp and piano. When her father died in 1776, she had a temporary desire to become a Catholic nun. However, she remained devoted to art, taking lessons in painting from Violante Cerotti (1709-1783) and Johann Zoffany, and at times also from Pompeo Batoni in Rome, and copying the old masters in the Uffizi and Palazzo Pitti. Her artistic results were so convincing that she was accepted into the Academia del Disegno in Florence in 1778.

The Death of Miss Gardiner, 1789, Musée de la Révolution française
In 1779, she moved to London with her mother and siblings. She had already made the acquaintance of the painter Angelika Kauffmann in Italy, who helped her in London to find her way into society circles interested in art and to present paintings at exhibitions at the Royal Academy of Arts. On January 18, 1781, Maria married the celebrated British miniature painter Richard Cosway (1742-1821), whom she had met at the home of the art collector Charles Townley (1737-1805). The spouses, who were unequal in age and lifestyle – her husband was around two decades older, was considered short, ugly and vain and became increasingly outlandish in old age – had a more or less formal marriage, from which their daughter Louisa Paolina Angelica (1790-1796), who died young, was born.

As a painter, Maria Cosway succeeded in acquiring an independent artistic reputation. This was due to portrait commissions from British aristocrats as well as the paintings she exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1781 and 1801. In 1784, Maria and her husband moved into Schomberg House on Pall Mall, where the couple played host to an illustrious and multicultural society.
Cosway was a successful composer, musician and hostess.
Her gift for organizing parties with appealing musical and literary performances earned her the attribution “The Goddess of Pall-Mall”. The future writer Quobna Ottobah Cugoano came to her house as a servant in 1784.

In 1786, Maria was introduced to Thomas Jefferson, then US ambassador in Paris, by the painter John Trumbull. A close romantic friendship developed between the two, also supported by shared interests in art, architecture and the beauty of landscapes traveled together. When the two went their separate ways, they continued their relationship through written correspondence until Jefferson’s death in 1826. In 1995, director James Ivory portrayed their friendship in the film drama Jefferson in Paris. In the film, Maria Cosway was played by the actress Greta Scacchi.

From 1801, Maria Cosway lived permanently in Paris. There she copied old masters in the Louvre and made etchings from them. It was during this time that her friend Jacques-Louis David created the painting Bonaparte Crossing the Alps at the Great St. Bernard Pass and she met Napoleon Bonaparte. She became friends with his uncle Joseph Fesch. He convinced her to take over the management of girls’ schools in Paris and Lyon from 1803 to 1809. In 1811/12, at the request of Francesco Melzi d’Eril, Duke of Lodi, she took over the management of the Collegio delle Grazie di Maria SS. Bambina, also known as Collegio delle Dame Inglesi, a girls’ school in Lodi. She held this position, for which she was made a baroness by Francis I of Austria in 1834, until her death, with an interruption between 1817 and 1821, when she was back in London to care for her sick husband.

Maria Cosway is buried in the Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Grazie in Lodi.

Source Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Cosway