id: 120827 accession number: 1941.552 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1941.552 updated: 2024-05-30 11:01:44.843000 Portrait of Catherine Clemens and Her Son, John Marcus Clemens, c. 1800. Richard Cosway (British, 1742–1821). Watercolor on ivory in a gold and split pearl frame; framed: 9 x 7.3 cm (3 9/16 x 2 7/8 in.); sight: 8 x 6.1 cm (3 1/8 x 2 3/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Edward B. Greene Collection 1941.552 title: Portrait of Catherine Clemens and Her Son, John Marcus Clemens title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1800 creation date earliest: 1795 creation date latest: 1805 current location: creditline: The Edward B. Greene Collection copyright: --- culture: England, 19th century technique: watercolor on ivory in a gold and split pearl frame department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960 type: Portrait Miniature find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Richard Cosway (British, 1742–1821) - artist Richard Cosway was Arguably the most fashionable miniature painter in London during the art form’s golden age in
late-eighteenth-century Britain. Also an accomplished painter in oils, Cosway was equally well known for his flamboyant character and the stunning art collection that secured his reputation as an arbiter of taste and model of connoisseurship. His elegant portraits in miniature were coveted by sitters who sought glamour even if it was at the expense of truthfulness. Cosway and his wife, Maria (neé Hadfield), maintained an elite circle of friends who helped define what
was au courant for the age and who consisted primarily of cultural luminaries and young members of high society revolving around George Augustus Frederick, the prince of Wales himself. His steady patronage from 1780 until 1808 fixed Cosway’s popularity within fashionable society. From 1785 Cosway’s miniatures were signed on the back: “Primarius Pictor Serenissimi Walliae Principis” (Principal Painter to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales), a pompous Latin designation that garnered the artist both fame and ridicule. Cosway was a successful artist-celebrity in his own time, and, in spite of being criticized periodically for being too superficially pretty, his miniatures have always been among the most desired by collectors. The Cleveland Museum of Art owns five miniatures by Cosway, painted between 1785 and 1805, that are representative of the artist’s stylistic range during the height of his career. --- measurements: Framed: 9 x 7.3 cm (3 9/16 x 2 7/8 in.); Sight: 8 x 6.1 cm (3 1/8 x 2 3/8 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Four Centuries of Miniature Painting opening date: 1950-01-18T05:00:00 Four Centuries of Miniature Painting. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (January 18-March 19, 1950). title: Chefs d’Oeuvre de la Miniature et de la Gouache opening date: 1956-06-15T04:00:00 Chefs d’Oeuvre de la Miniature et de la Gouache. Musée d'art et d'histoire, Geneva, Switzerland (organizer) (June 15-August 15, 1956). title: Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum opening date: 1991-06-07T04:00:00 Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 8, 1991). title: Intimate Images: Portrait Miniatures from Europe and America opening date: 1993-03-26T04:00:00 Intimate Images: Portrait Miniatures from Europe and America. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 26-October 17, 1993). title: Disembodied: Portrait Minatures and their Contemporary Relatives opening date: 2013-11-10T00:00:00 Disembodied: Portrait Minatures and their Contemporary Relatives. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 10, 2013-February 16, 2014). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * {'description': 'Main Gallery Rotation, Gallery 202, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 5, 2009 - April 6, 2009).', 'opening_date': '2009-01-05T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'Main European Rotation, Gallery 202, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 30, 2012 - July 23, 2012).', 'opening_date': '2012-01-30T00:00:00'} --- PROVENANCE Leo Schidlof (1886-1966), Paris, France, sold to Edward B. Greene date: Before 1930-1930 footnotes: citations: Edward B. Greene (1878-1957), Cleveland, OH, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art date: 1930-1941 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1941- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Think (International Business Machines Corp.) (March 1950). page number: 16 (repr.) url: Cleveland Museum of Art. Portrait Miniatures; The Edward B. Greene Collection. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1951. page number: Mentioned: p. 26, no. 8; reproduced: pl. VI, no. 8, cover url: https://archive.org/details/PortraitMiniatures/page/n53 Comstack, Helen. "The Edward B. Greene Collection of Miniatures." The Connoisseur 128, no. 532 (October 1951): 137-144. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 138 url: Lister, Raymond. “Edward B. Greene Collection of Portrait Miniatures.” Apollo: The International Magazine for Collectors 55 (January 1952): 20. page number: Mentioned: p. 20; reproduced: cover url: Geneva (Switzerland). Chefs-d'oeuvre de la miniature et de la gouache. Genèva: Le Musée, 1956. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 99 url: "Masterpieces of Miniatures and Gouache." The Connoisseur 138 (October 1956): 82-83. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 82-83 url: Cleveland Museum of Art, and Alan Chong. European & American Painting in the Cleveland Museum of Art: A Summary Catalogue. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1993. page number: p. 282 url: Korkow, Cory, and Dario Robleto. Disembodied: Portrait Miniatures and Their Contemporary Relatives. 2013. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: p.35, 86, 69 url: Korkow, Cory, and Jon L. Seydl. British Portrait Miniatures: The Cleveland Museum of Art. 2013. page number: Cat. no. 67, pp. 255-257 url: Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: P. 197 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1941.552/1941.552_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1941.552/1941.552_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1941.552/1941.552_full.tif