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Lot Essay
The present charming drawing is a self-portrait of the artist with his young wife, Maria (1760-1838), seated together in a woodland glade. The drawing can be dated to the early 1780s and is similar in technique and medium to another touching self-portrait of the artist with his wife in the Fondazione Cosway, Lodi (see S. Lloyd, op. cit., no. 34, pl. 33).
The present drawing has a strongly autobiographical narrative regarding the early years of the couple's marriage. The artist has depicted the couple in a relaxed pose, exchanging a tender look: their confident attitude presents them as fashionable and socially successful members of the artistic milieu. Their 17th Century-style costume with its Rubensesque echo clearly indicates Cosway's artistic influences; and the lute and book allude to the couple's talents and interests - Richard's connoisseurship and Maria's musical abilities.
Their marriage however did not continue in such a blissfully contented mood and Maria spent long periods away from her husband travelling around Europe. Despite this apparent estrangement Maria certainly cared for her husband in his last years and after his death commissioned a memorial from Richard Westmacott (1799-1872) for St Marylebone Parish Church, London, where he was buried, and a replica for the Collegio in Lodi. Before and after her husband's death she also organized a series of sales of his extensive collections; Old Master pictures, prints and drawings as well as Objets de vertu and his extensive library. Yet the present drawing, a reminder of their early life together, remained in Maria's own collection, and she kept it with her in the Convent at Lodi until her death there in 1838, a touching reminder of the happiness they shared together, captured so tenderly by her husband himself.
The present drawing has a strongly autobiographical narrative regarding the early years of the couple's marriage. The artist has depicted the couple in a relaxed pose, exchanging a tender look: their confident attitude presents them as fashionable and socially successful members of the artistic milieu. Their 17th Century-style costume with its Rubensesque echo clearly indicates Cosway's artistic influences; and the lute and book allude to the couple's talents and interests - Richard's connoisseurship and Maria's musical abilities.
Their marriage however did not continue in such a blissfully contented mood and Maria spent long periods away from her husband travelling around Europe. Despite this apparent estrangement Maria certainly cared for her husband in his last years and after his death commissioned a memorial from Richard Westmacott (1799-1872) for St Marylebone Parish Church, London, where he was buried, and a replica for the Collegio in Lodi. Before and after her husband's death she also organized a series of sales of his extensive collections; Old Master pictures, prints and drawings as well as Objets de vertu and his extensive library. Yet the present drawing, a reminder of their early life together, remained in Maria's own collection, and she kept it with her in the Convent at Lodi until her death there in 1838, a touching reminder of the happiness they shared together, captured so tenderly by her husband himself.