'I awleis admired your talent'

Artistic accomplishment was an important social andcultural skill for young women of the elite andaristocratic classes in the eighteenth century. Georgiana Keate, the subject of this book, is anexample of just such an accomplished young woman. Using the previously unknown diaries of Georgiana,and other contemporary sources, to reconstruct herlife and to illustrate her artistic education, thisbook compares her experience with other young womenof her class at this time. Also considered areGeorgiana s experiences with professional and amateurartists of this period such as Angelica Kauffman andMary Delany, together with her connections within theartistic and literary circles of this time. Integralto her artistic endeavours is her father, the amateurartist and poet George Keate. Her marriage to theamateur artist John Henderson caused upset within thefamily, but Georgiana happily swapped her artisticlife for that of wife and mother. This overview of afemale amateur artist should be of interest tostudents of art, social and women s history of the18th and 19th centuries.