The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 19, 2024

Portrait of Mary Frances (Fanny) Swinburne

Portrait of Mary Frances (Fanny) Swinburne

c. 1786
(British, 1742–1821)
England, 18th century
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 Edward B. Greene Collection 1941.553
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

Richard Cosway painted Mary Frances’s parents, Henry and Martha, in the same year he painted this.

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.
  • -1930
    (Leo Schidlof (1886-1966), Paris, France, sold to Edward B. Greene)
    1930-1941
    Edward B. Greene (1878-1957), Cleveland, OH, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1941-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Winter, Carl. "The British School of Miniature Portrait Painters". Proceedings of the British Academy v. 34. London: Milford, 1948:. Reproduced: pl. VII
    Cleveland Museum of Art. Portrait Miniatures; The Edward B. Greene Collection. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1951. Mentioned: p. 26, no. 7; reproduced: pl. XVI archive.org
    Comstack, Helen. "The Edward B. Greene Collection of Miniatures." The Connoisseur 128, no. 532 (October 1951): 137-144. Mentioned: p. 139
    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. p. 282
    Korkow, Cory, and Dario Robleto. Disembodied: Portrait Miniatures and Their Contemporary Relatives. 2013. Mentioned: p.86
    Korkow, Cory, and Jon L. Seydl. British Portrait Miniatures: The Cleveland Museum of Art. 2013. Cat. no. 64, pp. 247-249
  • Disembodied: Portrait Minatures and their Contemporary Relatives. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 10, 2013-February 16, 2014).
    Main Gallery Rotation (Gallery 202), The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 5, 2009 - April 6, 2009).
  • {{cite web|title=Portrait of Mary Frances (Fanny) Swinburne|url=false|author=Richard Cosway|year=c. 1786|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1941.553