Description

Artistic accomplishment was an important social and cultural skill for young women of the elite and aristocratic classes in the eighteenth century. Georgiana Keate, the subject of this book, is an example of just such an accomplished young woman. Using the previously unknown diaries of Georgiana, and other contemporary sources, to reconstruct her life and to illustrate her artistic education, this book compares her experience with other young women of her class at this time. Also considered are Georgiana's experiences with professional and amateur artists of this period such as Angelica Kauffman and Mary Delany, together with her connections within the artistic and literary circles of this time. Integral to her artistic endeavours is her father, the amateur artist and poet George Keate. Her marriage to the amateur artist John Henderson caused upset within the family, but Georgiana happily swapped her artistic life for that of wife and mother. This overview of a female amateur artist should be of interest to students of art, social and women's history of the 18th and 19th centuries.