The Right Honorable Lady Mary Radcliffe (1732-98), Wife of Francis Eyre, Esq.

1755

Francis Cotes

(British, 1726–1770)

Culture

England, 18th century

Medium

pastel on laid paper lined with canvas

Support

Laid paper lined with canvas

Measurements

Image: 60.7 x 45.7 cm (23 7/8 x 18 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Edward B. Greene 1946.463

Catalogue raisonné

Johnson 57

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Location

Not on view

Did You Know?

Francis Cotes described his pastel works as "decorative in a very high degree in apartments that are not too large; for having their surface dry, they partake in appearance of the effect of Fresco, and by candle light are luminous and beautiful beyond all other pictures."

Description

A founding member of the Royal Academy and one of the leading fashionable portrait painters of his generation, Francis Cotes was a pioneer of pastel painting in England. Here, in her marriage portrait, the young Lady Mary Radcliffe is regal in a Turkish-inspired, peacock blue mantle decorated with gold and trimmed with ermine. Pearls and feathers adorn her hair and a décolleté scarlet bodice reveals an expanse of porcelain skin.