Richard Cosway R.A. 1742-1821 British School. Pencil and watercolour portrait drawing of a lady seated and holding a book. Signed to the base of the column. 14.5 by 21cms. Image. 32 by 38 cms. Overall framed. Some old backboard staining to hands, recently conserved.
Traditionally held to be a portrait of Lady Laura Anne De Trafford (née Colman) 1770-1852. Born at Cullompton Devonshire, She married Captain Thomas Joseph Trafford in Marylebone London in 1803. A mother of eight children, she lived at Trafford Park Hall, Barton upon Irwell Lancashire.
Richard Cosway was the leading portrait miniaturist of the late 18th.Century. He painted his first portrait of George III in 1780 and was appointed Painter to the Prince of Wales in 1785. Cosway enjoyed continuous patronage from the Prince, painting over fifty portraits for him and other members of the royal family. He married the Anglo-Italian artist Maria Hadfield in 1781 and together they exerted great influence amongst London's fashionable elite and the art world.