print
- Museum number
- 1863,0110.86
- Description
-
Portraits of Richard and Maria Cosway in XVIIIc dress, seated in the garden of Schomberg House with elaborate architecture, served grapes by a black man, identifyable as the Cosways' servant, Ottobah Cugoano. In the manner of Rubens' painting of himself and his wife; etched state, c. 1790 (inscribed 1784)
Etching
- Production date
- 1790 (c.)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 242 millimetres
-
Width: 315 millimetres (including etched frame)
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- This print was believed to be one of only two etchings made by Cosway. See Stephen Lloyd, 'Richard and Maria Cosway', NG of Scotland 1995, cat.80,82.
However, Thomas Rowlandson is the more likely etcher. Nick Knowles has identified the confident, fluid style of the etched lines with Rowlandson's work of c. 1790. Nothing in Cosway's oeuvre is comparable. The 1784 date etched along with "Cosway" in the print coincides with the Cosways' move to Schomberg House, and their employment of Cugoano, that year (see ODNB).
This seems to be the earliest state of the known impressions. Impressions in the collection of the BM are: 1876,1014.331 and 1863,0110.86 (etched states); Q,3.114 (a later etched state with addition of parallel lines in the frame); and 1875,0814.1382 (with addition of mezzotint and possibly aquatint).
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1863
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1863,0110.86
