id: 120828 accession number: 1941.553 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1941.553 updated: 2022-04-02 09:00:12.614000 Portrait of Mary Frances (Fanny) Swinburne, c. 1786. Richard Cosway (British, 1742-1821). Watercolor on ivory in a gold, enamel, and split pearl frame; framed: 7 x 5.8 cm (2 3/4 x 2 5/16 in.); sight: 6.8 x 5.7 cm (2 11/16 x 2 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Edward B. Greene Collection 1941.553 title: Portrait of Mary Frances (Fanny) Swinburne title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1786 creation date earliest: 1786 creation date latest: 1787 current location: creditline: The Edward B. Greene Collection copyright: --- culture: England, 18th century technique: watercolor on ivory in a gold, enamel, and split pearl frame department: European Painting and Sculpture collection: P - British before 1800 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: 7 x 5.8 cm (2 3/4 x 2 5/16 in.); Sight: 6.8 x 5.7 cm (2 11/16 x 2 1/4 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS 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 (organizer) (November 10, 2013-February 16, 2014). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * Main Gallery Rotation (Gallery 202), The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 5, 2009 - April 6, 2009). --- PROVENANCE (Leo Schidlof (1886-1966), Paris, France, sold to Edward B. Greene) date: -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: Richard Cosway painted Mary Frances’s parents, Henry and Martha, in the same year he painted this. digital description: wall description: Mary Frances (Fanny) Swinburne (d. 1828) was the eldest daughter of the travel writer Henry Swinburne. This portrait was painted around 1786, when Richard Cosway was reaching the mature stage of his career and was among the most sought after miniature painters in London. In this work the sitter’s hair is adorned with pearls—a style commonly seen in portraits of the period. She wears an earring in her right ear. Her bright blue eyes, rosy cheeks, and red lips are accentuated by her mass of curled, powdered hair and her pale skin and gown. This work is a classic example of Cosway’s elegant female portraits, exhibiting the nearly monochromatic palette and free style that would be so decisively rejected in the next century by such artists as Andrew Robertson (1777–1845) and William Charles Ross (1794–1860). The miniature is placed in a twentieth-century revival period gold and blue enamel frame with graduated split pearls. This ornate type of frame was especially popular among early-twentieth-century collectors who felt that it suited the grandeur of miniatures by Cosway and his circle, the female portraits of which were so often composed of the pale tones of gauzy dresses, blue skies, and pearl-ornamented hair. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Winter, Carl. "The British School of Miniature Portrait Painters". Proceedings of the British Academy v. 34. London: Milford, 1948:. page number: Reproduced: pl. VII 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. 7; reproduced: pl. XVI url: https://archive.org/details/PortraitMiniatures/page/n63 Comstack, Helen. "The Edward B. Greene Collection of Miniatures." The Connoisseur 128, no. 532 (October 1951): 137-144. page number: Mentioned: p. 139 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: p.86 url: Korkow, Cory, and Jon L. Seydl. British Portrait Miniatures: The Cleveland Museum of Art. 2013. page number: Cat. no. 64, pp. 247-249 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1941.553/1941.553_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1941.553/1941.553_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1941.553/1941.553_full.tif