Richard Cosway, R.A.

Purchased, London, circa 1963

This work has been well preserved. Although some of the more delicate pigments have soften, the image retains much of its original balance. The sheet has been laid down and it may have become separated from its original mount. For further information on this lot please contact Mark Griffith-Jones on 0207 293 5083 ormark.griffithjones@sothebys.com
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This previously unrecorded drawing can be dated to the early 1770s.  During this decade Cosway was particularly interested in allegorical, mythological and classical subjects. However, it is his liberal use of colour here, that makes this drawing particularly rare.

There is a comparable work by Cosway, entitled Rinaldo and Armida, in the Albertina Museum, Vienna.¹  That watercolour dates from circa 1772 and includes several of the same compositional elements.  We are very grateful to Dr Stephen Lloyd, Curator of the Derby Collection, Knowsley Hall, Merseyside, for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.

1. S. Lloyd, Richard and Maria Cosway, Regency Artists of Taste and Fashion, Edinburgh 1995, p. 114, pl. 29