Richard Cosway

Richard Cosway, R.A. (Devon 1742-1821 London) Portrait of Mrs J.P. Fector, with her two children, Peter and Mary, in an interior oil on canvas 69 x 87cm (27 3/16 x 34 1/4in). The Collection of Sir Philip and Lady Haldin, Lympne Place, Lympne, Kent, circa 1920-1958, and thence by descent to the present owner

Richard Cosway, R.A. (Devon 1742-1821 London) Study of St Joan of Arc at prayer pencil on paper 9¼ x 5½ in. (23.5 x 14 cm.) with Agnew's, London, 2004, no. 22. The present drawing depicts St Joan kneeling against an altar within a richly decorated gothic church. Cosway was a great collector, and ahead of his time in his appreciation of the art of the early Renaissance. The present St Joan composition must in part be influenced by an important Renaissance picture in his own collection, The Mass of St Giles (now in the National Gallery, London, see S. Lloyd, Richard and Maria Cosway, Regency Artists of Taste and Fashion, ex. cat., Scottish National Portrait Gallery and National Portrait Gallery, London, 1995, p. 75, fig. 12).

Richard Cosway, R.A. (Oakford, Devon 1742-1821 London) Portrait of Mrs John Drummond, née Hester Cholmondeley, small full-length, in a white dress with frilled trim and sash, a book in her left hand with inscription 'M r s John Drummond/Sister of Charles 1 s t Lord Delamere née Cholmondeley/by Cosway' (verso) pencil and watercolour 9 x 5½ in. (22.9 x 14 cm.) Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 27 April 1917, lot 70 (50 gns to Huggins). Anonymous sale; Bonham's, London, 21 May 2008, lot 31, where purchased by the present owner. Hester Cholmondeley was born before 1774, the daughter of Thomas Cholmondeley, M.P. for Cheshire, and Dorothy Cowper. She married John Drummond on 11 June 1789 and they had one son and two daughters. She died on 24 September 1802. Despite the inscription on the reverse, her brother, the 1st Lord Delamere was in fact named Thomas, not Charles.

Richard Cosway, R.A. (Devon 1742-1821 London) Group portrait of the children of Edmund Boyle, 7th Earl of Cork,playing with a swing oil on canvas 93 3/8 x 58 in. (237 x 147.3 cm.) Provenance The Artist's Studio Sale; Stanley's, March 1822, where reputedlybought by Thomas Rowlandson. Thomas Rowlandson. James Gandy, who purchased it from the above, and by descent; Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 22 June 1973, lot 136(900gns.). Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 24 November 1998, lot 48(£30,000). Literature G.C. Williamson, Richard Cosway, R.A., 1907, p. 142. Exhibited London, Royal Academy, 1782, no. 212. Engraved J. Jones, 1786. View Lot Notes › Lot Notes The sitters were the children of Edmund, 7th Earl of Cork, byhis first wife, Anne, daughter and eventual co-heiress of KellandCourtenay of Painsford, Devon, and niece of John, 4th Earl ofSandwich, at whose house in Whitehall the couple were married in1764. Their first son, Richard, Viscount Dungarvan, died young. Thesitters in this picture are believed to be: the Hon. Edmund Boyle,later 8th Earl of Cork (1764-1856), who had a distinguishedmilitary career, rising to the rank of General; the Hon. RichardBoyle; the Hon. Courtenay Boyle, later Vice-Admiral Sir CourtenayBoyle (1770-1844); and the Hon. Lucy Isabella Boyle (d.1801) whomarried the Hon. Rev. George Bridgeman. Their parents' marriage was dissolved in 1782 and Lord Corksubsequently married the Hon. Mary Monckton (d.1840), daughter ofJohn, 1st Viscount Galway, and widely regarded as one of the mostremarkable women of her generation. Cosway was best known for his miniatures. This is perhaps his mostambitious life-size portrait group. It was to be followed by thesmaller William, 3rd Earl of Radnor with his sister Mary Anne of1785 and by a double portrait at Powderham.

LOT 296 PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN RICHARD COSWAYR.A. OKEFORD 1742 - LONDON 1821 PORTRAIT OF MARIA COSWAY (1760-1838) Watercolour over pencil; inscribed centre right: Hon be [sic] / McDann; furtherinscribed in pen and brown ink verso: Maria Luisa CaterinaCecilia / Cosway. Fior: na / Rd: Cosway fecit: / anno 1785 120 by 765 mm