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| Richard Cosway Actor Charles Kemble in Stage Costume 1795 Victoria & Albert Museum |
Richard Cosway (1742-1821) made a successful career at the end of the 18th century painting miniature watercolor portraits on ivory. His clients were the English grandees of his day. Few miniaturists in the past had idealized their sitters as rapturously as Cosway managed to do.
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| Richard Cosway Princess Amelia, youngest daughter of George III 1802 Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Richard Cosway Frederick Ponsonby, 3rd Earl of Bessborough c. 1780 Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Richard Cosway Henrietta Frances, Countess of Bessborough c. 1780 Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Richard Cosway Thomas Chinnal Porter 1790 Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Richard Cosway Mrs. Thomas Chinnal Porter 1790 Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Richard Cosway Portrait of a Man 1793 Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Richard Cosway Portrait of a Woman 1775 Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Richard Cosway Portrait of a Man 1801 Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Richard Cosway Portrait of a Woman 1802 Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Richard Cosway Portrait of a Woman late 18th century Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Richard Cosway Sir James Hamlyn 1st Baronet & his wife Arabella Williams c. 1789 Victoria & Albert Museum |
Curators at the Victoria & Albert Museum describe the newly fashionable technique used in the drawing immediately above –
"In the 1780s Cosway developed an intriguing and highly sophisticated new form of portraiture to offer his clients. These portraits joined the graphic qualities of pencil drawing with the fine detail of miniature painting. The figures were sketched out with great vigour while the faces were carefully delineated using the miniature painter's techniques. This double portrait therefore is not an unfinished study, but an example of this innovative style of portraiture. The effect is very sophisticated and was emulated by contemporaries such as Henry Edridge and John Smart. Ingres, the pupil of Cosways's friend, David, later produced small full-length portraits in pencil with the figure boldly sketched and the face finely finished; an indication of the continuing appeal of this style."