id:			540588
accession number:	2023.47
share license status:	CC0
url:			https://clevelandart.org/art/2023.47
updated:		2024-05-17 11:33:46.449000

Two Veiled Young Women, probably Lilla Amnani and her sister, 1786. Richard Cosway (British, 1742–1821). Graphite, watercolor, red chalk on paper; sheet: 23.5 cm (9 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2023.47

title:				Two Veiled Young Women, probably Lilla Amnani and her sister
title in original language:	
series:				
series in original language:	
creation date:			1786
creation date earliest:		1786
creation date latest:		1786
current location:		
creditline:			Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
copyright:			

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culture:	England
technique:	graphite, watercolor, red chalk on paper
department:	Drawings
collection:	DR - British
type:		Drawing
find spot:	
catalogue raisonne: 

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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 <br>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 <br>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.
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measurements: Sheet: 23.5 cm (9 1/4 in.)
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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS

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PROVENANCE

	Richard Cosway (the artist) [1742–1821]
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	Maria Hadfield Cosway (1760-1838), Lodi
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	Gifted by the above as part of a large collection to the College Collegio delle Dame Inglesi, Lodi
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	Sisters of Charity of Maria Santissima Bambina, Lodi
	date: 1948
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	Acquired from the above by Commander Gerald F. Barnett (1926-2011), Hampshire
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	Anthony Landsberg, London, England
	date: 2015
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	David S. Lavender Antiques (sold as Abraham Pascalrid and his two wives)
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	Private collection, UK, until 2019
	date: 2015–19
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	(Philip Mould & Company, London, England), sold to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
	date: ?–2023
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	The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
	date: June 5, 2023–
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RELATED WORKS

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CITATIONS

	Ferrari, Emma, “I Disegni di Riccardo Cosway nella Biblioteca di Lodi,” <em>Rassegna d’Arte </em>XIII (1913)
	page number: 	144-147, p. 145
	url:		

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IMAGES

web:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2023.47/2023.47_web.jpg
print:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2023.47/2023.47_print.jpg
full:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2023.47/2023.47_full.tif