Francis Cotes (1726 - 1770) - Portrait d'Une Dame De Qualité

Portrait of a fine lady 
Francis Cotes (1726 - 1770)
18th century English school

Portrait of a woman from the English aristocracy, richly dressed in a blue coat trimmed with fur and a low-cut lace shirt embroidered with flowers, decorated with ribbons. She is adorned with a double-row pearl necklace as well as a row in her hair and long pearls in her ears.

The pastel technique in which Francis Cotes excels gives this pretty woman extreme softness. A label on the back refers to Pawsey & Payne, London. Gilbert Pawsey (1881-1951) was an art dealer in 1911 and his associate James Spencer Payne (1853-1931) was a sculptor and gilder. Francis Cotes is one of the first English pastelists, he creates his own pastels and becomes the most fashionable portraitist of the aristocracy in the mid-18th century.
He produced numerous pastel portraits but also large oil portraits of famous English people. In 1765 he became director of the Society of Artists of Great Britain, of which he was one of the founders. He died at the age of 44, at the height of his portraiture. ​

Pastel on paper, 60 x 45 cm
Signed above the shoulder on the left and dated 1759 “FCOTES pxt 1759”
Carved gilded wood frame, 76 x 62 cm

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