Abstract
The Nine Living Muses of Great Britain, painted by Richard Samuel and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1779, forms the central motif of this book, which considers the cultural history and group identity of women’s literary and intellectual activity between 1750 and 1812. Samuel’s ‘muses’ were Elizabeth Montagu, Elizabeth Griffith, Elizabeth Carter, Charlotte Lennox, Elizabeth Linley, Angelica Kauffman, Catharine Macaulay, Anna Barbauld and Hannah More (see Plate 1). Together they formed an important network of intellectuals who were involved in a diverse range of cultural activities, from writing poetry, political pamphlets, educational and moral philosophy, legal essays, novels, plays and Shakespeare criticism to performing arias and exhibiting paintings. Their portrait celebrates the relationship between the arts along the lines of the classical humanist model of a harmonious society, capturing the moment when English women as a group first gained acceptance as powerful contributors to the artistic world.
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