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Maria Eleanor, Countess of Clarendon

Maker Richard Cosway (British, 1742-1821)

ClassificationsPAINTINGS

Date1782

Mediumwatercolor on ivory

Dimensions2 3/8 x 2 in. (6 x 5.1 cm.)

DescriptionPortrait miniature housed in locket bordered with diamonds

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens

Status

Not on view

Label TextRichard Cosway was one of the foremost miniaturists of the eighteenth century who also produced both miniatures and portrait drawings. The beautiful miniature of the Countess of Clarendon is typical of Cosway's delicate style, which set the standard which many miniaturists were to follow. Cosway's small-scale pencil or watercolor portraits were sometimes engraved and sold as prints, again demonstrating the fluid boundaries between the three media on display here. This drawing is of the fashionable sculptress, Anne Seymour Damer, a close friend of Cosway and cousin of Horace Walpole. Damer, in fact, inherited Strawberry Hill upon Walpole's death, including his famed collection of portrait miniatures. Cosway himself was also a collector, and he and his wife gave lavish entertainments at their London home filled with Old Masters and his own paintings. In one room, Cosway kept portfolios of prints and drawings, including one of his portrait drawings and prints after his portraits.

Object number26.18