A Portrait of Elizabeth Willing Powel (1743-1830)

Drawing on original manuscript sources, Maxey has produced a persuasive study of a late-18th-century portrait and its subject. He has focused attention on an enigmatic painting, and the person portrayed in it -- a woman of talent and verve, whose life has remained undeservedly obscure. Elizabeth Willing Powel presided over a salon; spoke her mind freely; and maintained, for a period of 40 years, an extensive, illuminating correspondence. She was the trusted confidante of the country’s first pres