Maria Edgeworth (1768-1849), Novelist; daughter of Richard Lovell Edgeworth

Sitter associated with 9 portraits
Author, best remembered for her novels, including Castle Rackrent(1800), Belinda (1802), The Absentee (1812) and Ormond (1817), noteworthy for their humanitarian interest, particularly in the life of the Irish peasantry. Her humanitarian attitudes were encouraged by her father, Richard Lovell Edgeworth, who supervised her education and involved her in the usually masculine role of running his estates as well as travelling with him on the continent. Together they wrote the influential primer Practical Education (1788), a sympathetic and enlightened scheme for the domestic upbringing of children, which encouraged self-expression, the use of imaginative literature and the writing of stories.