Divided Affections

Maria Hadfield Cosway was a beautiful and talented English artist, who accompanied her husband, the miniature portrait painter, Richard Cosway, to Paris, in 1786, where she was introduced to Thomas Jefferson, then American Envoy to the Court of Versailles. The future President of the United States fell in love with the young Mrs. Cosway the day they met. Their impossible love was immortalized in Jefferson's 4500 word letter, a Dialogue between the Head and the Heart. All those interested in Thomas Jefferson and American history will be fascinated by this first full length biography of the woman who inspired Jefferson's affection. But Maria Cosway's life is not only extraordinary because of her relationship with the American ambassador. She was a celebrity artist, an exceptional muscisian, a Regency hostess who entertained the Prince of Wales, later an intimate of the Bonapartes, and finally a successful founder of schools. For her pioneering work in women's education, this daughter of an innkeeper was given the title of Baroness by the Austrian Emperor Franz I.