Description
A founding member of the Royal Academy and one of the leading fashionable portrait painters of his generation, Francis Cotes was a pioneer of pastel painting in England. Here, in her marriage portrait, the young Lady Mary Radcliffe is regal in a Turkish-inspired, peacock blue mantle decorated with gold and trimmed with ermine. Pearls and feathers adorn her hair and a décolleté scarlet bodice reveals an expanse of porcelain skin.
Provenance
Colonel Herbert Hall Mulliner [1861-1924], Birmingham (?-1924); (sale, Christie's, London, July 18, 1924, no. 2) (1924); (P. & D. Colnaghi, London) (after 1924-by 1937); (sale, Mensing & Fils, Amsterdam, April 27, 1937, no. 148) (1937); (A. Seligmann & Rey, Paris, sold to Edward B. Greene, Cleveland, OH) (1937); Edward B. Greene, Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1937-1946); Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1946-)
Accession Number
1946.463
Medium
pastel on laid paper lined with canvas
Dimensions
Image: 60.7 x 45.7 cm (23 7/8 x 18 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Credit Line
Gift of Edward B. Greene
