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Lot Essay
Lord Cowper, at the time still Lord Fordwich, embarked on his Grand Tour at the beginning of 1757, with Colonel John Chastellain, the latter recording their journey in a diary. Despite being elected as an M.P., and having in September 1764 inherited the Earldom and a considerable fortune, Lord Cowper remained in Italy. He resided in Florence until his death in 1789. He lived in the Villa Palmieri and the Villa Cipresso, just outside Florence, and soon became a leading member of Florentine society. In 1766 he was nominated an honorary member of the Florentine Academy and two years later of the Academia della Crusca. Cowper had developed an interest in fine art and commissioned several works by contemporary artists, including landscapes by Zuccarelli, now at Firle Place, Sussex, and Jakob-Philipp Hackert, now in the Goethemuseum, Frankfurt. He also started to collect pictures, on which he was advised by Zoffany who had arrived in Florence in 1774. In Zoffany's painting The Tribuna, in the Royal Collection, Windsor, the artist and Cowper are shown admiring Raphael's Niccolini Madonna now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, which Cowper bought from Zoffany with three or four other old masters.
The inventory of circa 1779 of Cowper's pictures demonstrates the high quality of the collection, which also included the three panels by Pontormo with Scenes from the Life of Saint Joseph, now in the National Gallery, London. That Cowper continued to acquire pictures of high quality even after Zoffany left Florence in 1778 is evidenced by the presence of Fra Bartolommeo's Rest on the Flight to Egypt, which was recently acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. After Lord Cowper's death in 1789 the paintings came to England and were recorded in Lord Cowper's George Street residence in circa 1810. The 28 pictures in this inventory were to form the nucleus of the celebrated collection at Panshanger, Hertfordshire, which was rebuilt by the 5th Earl Cowper at the beginning of the nineteenth century. After the death of Lady Desborough in 1952, the collection was dispersed.
The inventory of circa 1779 of Cowper's pictures demonstrates the high quality of the collection, which also included the three panels by Pontormo with Scenes from the Life of Saint Joseph, now in the National Gallery, London. That Cowper continued to acquire pictures of high quality even after Zoffany left Florence in 1778 is evidenced by the presence of Fra Bartolommeo's Rest on the Flight to Egypt, which was recently acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. After Lord Cowper's death in 1789 the paintings came to England and were recorded in Lord Cowper's George Street residence in circa 1810. The 28 pictures in this inventory were to form the nucleus of the celebrated collection at Panshanger, Hertfordshire, which was rebuilt by the 5th Earl Cowper at the beginning of the nineteenth century. After the death of Lady Desborough in 1952, the collection was dispersed.