Richard Cosway

Richard Cosway was one of the most significant multifaceted artistic personalities active in Regency Britain. He was arguably the pre-eminent pupil of William Shipley as well as a versatile oil portraitist and a sophisticated draftsman of subject compositions. He was undoubtedly the most important, influential, and fashionable portrait miniaturist active during the last two decades of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth; his delicate style and flattering portrayals have come to epitomize Regency society. Cosway's flamboyant personality, eccentric mysticism, and brilliant marriage to Maria Hadfield during the 1780s brought him celebrity and notoriety. He was the principal recorder of the Prince of Wales's image from 1780 to 1808, as well as having exerted a great influence on his patron's artistic taste and collecting during that period. Perhaps Cosway's greatest achievement, however, was as a connoisseur, virtuoso, and collector - particularly of0914660195

Stephen Lloyd is Senior Curator at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh.