Completed Dress and Textiles, Portraits: British 18th C 26 Did Francis Cotes (1726–1770) paint this unidentified lady?

MER_SEC_865
Topic: Artist

Could the painter of this work be Francis Cotes? I see many similarities between his work and the work of this unknown artist. Including the positioning of the long skinny fingers. The faces are similarly constructed and I believe the way this artist handles the fabric of the dress is very similar to that of Francis Cotes. Furthermore, the backgrounds of Cotes's portraits show a striking resemblance to this portrait of a lady.

Francis Cotes on Art UK: http://bit.ly/2ckyLLE

The collection note:

'When it was acquired it was listed as 'Unknown Artist'. A Bonham's valuation of 2005 lists it as circle of Joseph Highmore. To me it looks a little like Allan Ramsay's work but less well modelled – a studio production maybe? See: http://bit.ly/2cJwyKa

Stephen Whittle 26/8/2016'

Caroline McDonald, Entry reviewed by Art UK

Completed, Outcome

This discussion is now closed. The attribution has been amended from ‘Unknown artist’ to ‘British School’ and the painting has been dated to c.1730.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to the discussion. To anyone viewing this discussion for the first time, please see below for all the comments that led to this conclusion.

25 comments

To me this is a portrait of an earlier generation than Cotes. The pose and dress speak of the 1730s or 1740s. Lou Taylor will be able to be more definitive. Highmore looks a reasonable direction to look, but it it does not seem to be distinctive enough to be likely to be attributable to a leading painter.

Martin Hopkinson,

The Atkinson's 1740 portrait of a lady by Highmore does not seem to be by the same hand as this.

Lou Taylor, Dress and Textiles,

I would like to suggest that portrait might be earlier than Francis Cotes- maybe 1720s 30s. The whole mood of the dress seems to me to be more of that period- the full artistic sleeves, the long busk and the stress on the long corset underneath the simplicity of the dress.. 1760s and 70s artistic dress portraits are much more neoclassical in style with more and more complex draperies. I have found a vaguely similar portrait of Lady Isabella Leigh by John Vanderbank from the Atkinson Gallery- HE died in 1739 ...just floating an idea here.

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Martin Hopkinson,

Could this be by one of the visiting portraitists from Europe using a London based drapery painter?

Martin Hopkinson,

The sky is Frenchified. Could it be by Philippe Mercier?

Martin Hopkinson,

I tend to agree with you, Richard, but I am pretty certain that the head is by a different artist from the rest of the picture.

Martin Hopkinson,

The head and arms look as if they were painted by a provincial portraitist of similar stature as the artist who painted the Beaumont Family [Treasurer's House, York] attributed to Hamlet Winstanley - although I think that these are by a different hand.

Jacinto Regalado,

The face is much too doll-like for Cotes. It looks mechanical or generic, and I agree the head and arms were probably not done by the painter of the dress.

Jacinto Regalado,

Although Highmore's (female) faces are variable in quality, he was certainly capable of better than the face in this picture.

Ivor Thomas ,

It does, to my eye look like Francis Cotes

Jacinto Regalado,

I think Thomas Hudson and Joseph Highmore (especially the former), or "style of" either, are plausible possibilities. Hudson used the same sort of background in several female portraits (and some male ones) in 3/4 length.

Jacinto Regalado,

This is an oil painting, and I understand Cotes didn't switch from pastels to oils until the 1760s. Thus, the dress in this picture is too early to be by Cotes.

Marcie Doran,

I have attached a composite created with this work and a painting from the Alamy website “Portrait of Elizabeth Hatch” by Joseph Highmore that is dated 1725. https://tinyurl.com/5ej3muwv. There are many similarities, including: the sky, the shape of the dress (compare the waist in each painting), the arms and neck, and the hair. They could be mother and daughter.

Mark Wilson,

The Portrait of Elizabeth Hatch appears as attributed to George Knapton on various auction sites (for example here (https://bit.ly/3FxLs3u) and that's what it was sold as at Sotheby's in 2009 (https://bit.ly/303DJKh - though no image to match).

The 1725 date can't be right either as the Sotheby's notes only give Hatch as being born in 1724, so a date of around 1740 seems more plausible.

Jacob Simon,

This five-year-old discussion, “Did Francis Cotes (1726–1770) paint this unidentified lady?”, has been answered in the negative by most contributors, on the basis that the costume dates to about 1730, give or take a decade (as Lou, Group Leader, notes), and the style does not agree with Cotes’s work (as Bendor, Group Leader, notes). I agree with both group leaders.

Time for one or other or both group leaders to close this discussion? I don’t think it’s worth keeping open in the hope of identifying the artist because in the portrait’s current condition such an attribution would inevitably be problematic.

Jacob Simon,

Can Art UK please close this discussion on the basis of Bendor's agreement (formerly group leader)?

It's not painterly enough to be by Knapton or Highmore as the above composites show.

Last time I posted it was as this five-year-old discussion. Now it as this six-year-old discussion.

Jacob Simon,

Now the discussion is seven years old. There is no group leader for the 18c. So can Art UK close this discussion on the basis of Bendor's agreement (formerly group leader) on 01/02/2022?

Jacinto Regalado,

I would certainly favor British School over French.