Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Cosway II

Richard Cosway
Actor Charles Kemble in Stage Costume
1795
Victoria & Albert Museum

Richard Cosway (1742-1821) made a successful career at the end of the 18th century painting miniature watercolor portraits on ivory. His clients were the English grandees of his day. Few miniaturists in the past had idealized their sitters as rapturously as Cosway managed to do.

Richard Cosway
Princess Amelia, youngest daughter of George III
1802
Victoria & Albert Museum

Richard Cosway
Frederick Ponsonby, 3rd Earl of Bessborough
c. 1780
Victoria & Albert Museum

Richard Cosway
Henrietta Frances, Countess of Bessborough
c. 1780
Victoria & Albert Museum

Richard Cosway
Thomas Chinnal Porter
1790
Victoria & Albert Museum

Richard Cosway
Mrs. Thomas Chinnal Porter
1790
Victoria & Albert Museum 

Richard Cosway
Portrait of a Man
1793
Victoria & Albert Museum

Richard Cosway
Portrait of a Woman
1775
Victoria & Albert Museum

Richard Cosway
Portrait of a Man
1801
Victoria & Albert Museum

Richard Cosway
Portrait of a Woman
1802
Victoria & Albert Museum

Richard Cosway
Portrait of a Woman
late 18th century
Victoria & Albert Museum

Richard Cosway
Sir James Hamlyn 1st Baronet & his wife Arabella Williams
c. 1789
Victoria & Albert Museum

Curators at the Victoria & Albert Museum describe the newly fashionable technique used in the drawing immediately above 

"In the 1780s Cosway developed an intriguing and highly sophisticated new form of portraiture to offer his clients. These portraits joined the graphic qualities of pencil drawing with the fine detail of miniature painting. The figures were sketched out with great vigour while the faces were carefully delineated using the miniature painter's techniques. This double portrait therefore is not an unfinished study, but an example of this innovative style of portraiture. The effect is very sophisticated and was emulated by contemporaries such as Henry Edridge and John Smart. Ingres, the pupil of Cosways's friend, David, later produced small full-length portraits in pencil with the figure boldly sketched and the face finely finished; an indication of the continuing appeal of this style."