(b Florence, 1759; d Lodi, nr Milan, 5 Jan 1838). Painter and etcher, wife of (1) Richard Cosway. Her parents managed three inns in Florence that were popular with the English on the Grand Tour. Her brother was the architect George Hadfield. As a pupil of Violante Cerroti and Johan Zoffany, Maria copied at the Uffizi from 1773 to 1778, in which year she was elected to the Florentine Accademia del Disegno. In the following year she travelled to London, where on 18 January 1781 she married (1) Richard Cosway. Between 1781 and 1801 she exhibited at the Royal Academy, London, showing some portraits but mainly history paintings; she took her subjects from such literary sources as the Old Testament, Homer, Virgil, Petrarch, Tasso and Shakespeare. Her two main stylistic influences, serving respectively the decorative and the visionary aspects of her work, were Angelica Kauffman and Henry Fuseli. The full-length portrait of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, as Cynthia (exh. RA 1782; Chatsworth, Derbys), which was engraved by Valentine Green in 1783, won her the most attention, but more striking was the Self-portrait (untraced; probably exh. RA 1787) showing her with arms crossed; Green engraved it in 1787. During the 1780s Maria Cosway was hostess at some of the most fashionable musical evenings in London. Visits to Paris in 1786 and 1787 were the setting for a love affair with Thomas Jefferson. After a period in Italy (1790–94) she worked in London on a series of projects published by Rudolph Ackermann, which included her etchings of Richard Cosway’s drawings (1800) and her original designs illustrating two moral tales for women (both 1800), as well as more successful illustrations (1803) to a poem by Mary Robinson (1758–1800).

Part of the Cosway family

• Cosway, Maria (Louisa Caterina Cecilia)
  • Cosway