Maria Graham - Second Marriage

Second Marriage

When she arrived in London, Maria Graham had taken rooms in Kensington Gravel Pits, just south of Notting Hill Gate, which was something of an artists’ enclave. There lived the Royal Academy painter Augustus Wall Callcott and his musician brother John Wall Callcott, but also painters like John Linnell, David Wilkie and William Mulready, and musicians such as William Crotch (the first principal of the Royal Academy of Music) and William Horsley (John Callcott’s son-in-law). In addition, this close-knit group was frequently visited by artists like John Varley, Edwin Landseer, John Constable and J.M.W. Turner.

Maria’s lodgings very quickly became a focal point for London’s intellectuals, such as the Scottish poet Thomas Campbell, Maria’s book publisher John Murray and the historian Francis Palgrave, but her keen interest and knowledge of painting (she was a skilled illustrator of her own books, and had written the book about Poussin) made it inevitable that she would quickly become part of the artists’ enclave as well.

It must have been love at first sight when Maria Graham and Augustus Callcott met, because they married on his 48th birthday, 20 February 1827. They immediately left for a year-long honeymoon to Italy, Germany, Austria and the Habsburg Monarchy. It was his first trip abroad, and he obviously enjoyed it. From then on he would travel extensively, both to Europe and the Middle East, with Maria as well as with friends like Turner.