Frank Cadogan Cowper

F.M. Fry Esq
Private Collection, Peru (according to a label fragment on the reverse)
Sale: Sotheby's, London, June 19, 1984, lot 108, illustrated 
Private Collector (acquired at the above sale)
Thence by descent

London, The Royal Academy, 1909, no. 65
Rome, International Fine Arts Exhibition, 1911, no. 151 

The Athenaeum, 1909, vol. I, p. 593
H. Heathcote Statham, "The Royal Academy and the Salon," The Living Age, vol. 262, 1909, p. 78
The International Fine Arts Exhibition, Rome. Catalogue of the British Section, 1911, p. 197, illustrated
"Rome Exhibition," The Art Journal, 1911, p. 160
Samuel J. Umland, The Tim Burton Encyclopedia, Lanham, 2015, p. 19

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This work would benefit from cleaning as it appears to be quite dirty and has not been recently restored. The complex paint layer of quite elaborate technical skill seems to be very well preserved. The canvas seems to have been lined with a non-wax adhesive long ago, and the paint layer may have been cleaned at that time. Under ultraviolet light, a very noticeably opaque varnish covers the picture, making identification of retouches quite hard. However, there are some patches which read slightly stronger, including a small area in the red in the lower left beneath the girls' held hands that may have received some retouches. A few of the dark areas in the gold and black dress on the left may have received a few retouches. The red beneath the same figure's left arm may have also been retouched. While there may be retouches beneath the old varnishes that are not visible either to the naked eye or under ultraviolet light at present, it seems that the condition is very good.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Frank Cadogan Cowper is celebrated for his flair for the dramatic and his impactful compositions. He was an accomplished illustrator and well represented in the Royal Academy, and while he is sometimes described as “the last Pre-Raphaelite,” his broad influences and the use of anachronistic imagery in contemporary narratives also invites comparison to American artists such as Maxfield Parrish or N. C. Wyeth.

Cowper enrolled at St. John’s Wood Art School in 1896 and London’s Royal Academy a year later, where the retrospective exhibitions of Ford Madox Brown in 1896 and Sir John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti in 1898 would have a profound impact on the young artist’s development. The influence of the pre-Raphaelites is evident in Venetian Ladies Listening to the Serenade, his 1909 Royal Academy submission, where three beautiful young women are arranged on a balcony as if it were a stage. Here, Cowper pays homage to one of his masters, as the figure at right who passes a comb through her long red hair borrows directly from Rossetti’s iconic painting, Lady Lilith (1866-68, altered 1872-73, Delaware Art Museum). Cowper also frequently drew inspiration from the Italian Renaissance, which can be seen in his 1907 Royal Academy submission, Vanity (1907, Royal Academy), where the model’s gold and black dress of elaborate serpentine design is also worn by the central figure of the present work. The choice may have been informed by Edward Burne-Jones as the costume design appears in his watercolor, Sidonia von Bork (1860, Tate Britain, fig. 1), which drew on Giulio Romano's Portrait of Isabella d'Este (circa 1531, Royal Collection, Windsor) for inspiration. Detailing the luxurious textiles of the figures’ gowns, as well as the kilim rug hung over the balustrade, faience tile floor and Hispano Moresque lusterware albarello with flowers, echoes the renewed interest in the applied arts and crafts which emerged in late nineteenth century British art. When the present work was exhibited at the Royal Academy, critics observed that "this use of [dramatic local] color is well enough in the place in such a picture as Mr. Cadogan Cowper's Venetian Ladies Listening to the Serenade (65), the clearly defined differences of hue enhancing in this instance the impression of the immobility of the listeners. The masses of warm colour to the left of the composition are handsome and splendid... Finery seems in increasing degree of preoccupation of Mr. Cowper" (The Athenaeum, 1909, vol. I, p. 593).