Maria Luisa Caterina Cecilia Cosway was an Italian-English painter, musician, and educator. She worked in England, France, and later Italy, cultivating a large circle of friends and clients, mainly as an initiate of Swedish and French Illuminism and an enthusiastic revivalist of the Masonic Knights Templar.
Self-portrait, 1787
Maria Cosway by her husband, Richard Cosway
Richard Cosway's self-portrait in miniature, circa 1770
Georgiana as Cynthia (another name for the goddess Diana) from Spenser's Faerie Queene. Painting by Maria Cosway circa 1782, Bakewell, Chatsworth House.
Richard Cosway was a leading English portrait painter of the Georgian and Regency era, noted for his miniatures. He was a contemporary of John Smart, George Engleheart, William Wood, and Richard Crosse. He befriended fellow Freemason and Swedenborgians William Blake and Chevalier d'Éon. His wife was the Italian-born painter Maria Cosway, a close friend of Thomas Jefferson.
Self-portrait in miniature, c. 1770
A SMUGGLING MACHINE or a Convenient Cos(au)way for a Man in Miniature. A 1782 etching satirising the relationship between Cosway and his wife. Published by Hannah Humphrey.
Self-Portrait of Richard Cosway - National Portrait Gallery, London
Portrait of Arthur Wellesley, later Duke of Wellington, Dated 1808, by Richard Cosway, RA, 1742–1821, Watercolour on ivory V&A Museum no. P.6-1941 Victoria and Albert Museum
