Georgiana Shipley

Georgiana Hare-Naylor (born Georgiana Shipley; circa 1755 –1806) was an English painter and art patron.

Life Georgiana was born at St Asaph in 1752, the fourth daughter of Anna Maria, born Mordaunt, and Jonathan Shipley, then a canon of Christ Church, Oxford and later Bishop of Llandaff and of St Asaph. Her eldest sister Anna Maria married Sir William Jones, who proposed the existence of the Indo-European language. Georgiana was a scholar, excellent at Latin.

She was a few years older than her cousin and namesake Georgiana Spencer, later Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire. The duchess introduced her to Francis Hare-Naylor,

In 1792 she commissioned the artist and sculptor John Flaxman to create illustrations for Homer's books The Iliad and The Odyssey. Flaxman's sister was the artist Maria Flaxman, governess to the Hare-Naylor children. leaving her children to the care of Lady Jones, her eldest sister. Her husband never returned to Herstmonceux, and in 1807 he sold the estate.

There is a poignant memorial to her at Herstmonceux which shows her on her death bed entrusting her only daughter, Anna Maria Clemintina, then about seven years old, to her sister. The work is credited to "a Danish artist, pupil of Thorwaldsen" (presumably Bertel Thorvaldsen, mainly known as a sculptor).

Family Her four sons were Francis, Augustus, Julius, and Marcus, all born in Italy. Her only daughter, Anna Maria Clementina, was named after her elder sister.