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Source 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.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
125028
label
The Right Honorable Lady Mary Radcliffe (1732-98), Wife of Francis Eyre, Esq.
core
obj
dtoType
drawing
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
125028
contentType
drawing
title
The Right Honorable Lady Mary Radcliffe (1732-98), Wife of Francis Eyre, Esq.
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.
date
1755
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q79903286
creators
12537
genreSpecific
Drawing
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Image: 60.7 x 45.7 cm (23 7/8 x 18 in.)
cul
England, 18th century
accession
1946.463
Source extras
tec
pastel on laid paper lined with canvas
tombstone
The Right Honorable Lady Mary Radcliffe (1732-98), Wife of Francis Eyre, Esq., 1755. Francis Cotes (British, 1726–1770). Pastel on laid paper lined with canvas; image: 60.7 x 45.7 cm (23 7/8 x 18 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Edward B. Greene, 1946.463
supportMaterials
description
laid paper lined with canvas
collection
DR - British
inscriptions
inscription
Inscribed, at lower left, in black chalk: Cotes pxt. / 1755
didYouKnow
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."
citations
citation
Francis, Henry S. "Three Eighteenth-Century Pastel Portraits." <em>Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 34, no. 9 (1947): 213-36.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 214
url
www.jstor.org/stable/25141409
citation
Johnson, Edward Mead. <em>Francis Cotes: Complete Edition with a Critical Essay and a Catalogue</em>. Oxford: Phaidon, 1976.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 58, no. 57
citation
<em>The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 185, no. 75; Reproduced: p. 184
citation
Chong, Alan. <em>European and American Painting in the Cleveland Museum of Art: A Summary Catalogue</em>. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1993.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 45
citation
Jeffares, Neil. <em>Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800</em>. London: Unicorn Press, 2006.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 134
citation
Jeffares, Neil. "COTES, Francis: Essay, Named Sitters A-H" <em>Dictionary of Patellists before 1800, Online Edition. </em>2008.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 11
url
www.pastellists.com
catalogueRaisonne
Johnson 57
creditline
Gift of Edward B. Greene
updatedAt
2026-05-29 06:27:24.376000
sourceId
125028
dept
Drawings
coll
DR - British
med
pastel on laid paper lined with canvas
creatorTags
male
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
07c185a00e5f8cc7