Richard Cosway (English, 1742-1821), Portrait of the Honorable Thomas Windsor

Oil on canvas, unsigned, retaining gallery labels to verso, presented in a later giltwood frame, retaining gallery paperwork.

Stretcher size 30 1/4 x 25 in.; Frame dimensions 35 1/8 x 30 1/4 in.

Thomas Agnew & Sons, London.
Vose Galleries, Boston, 1966.

Richard Cosway was known for his fine miniature portraits of London’s aristocracy. He also painted several full-scale oil paintings including portraits of notable families such as Courtenay, Pleydell-Bouverie, and Spencer-Churchill. Cosway studied at Shipley's Drawing School in the Strand and attended the Richmond House Academy, where he met Giovanni Battista Cipriani. He exhibited at the Society of Artists and the Free Society of Artists. In 1769 he entered the Royal Academy Schools and began to show there. In 1781 Cosway married the Anglo-Florentine artist Maria Cosway (1780-1838), and they moved to the Schomberg House in Pall Mall, where they entertained lavishly, maintained a high social profile, and frequented royal circles. Cosway supplemented their lifestyle by dealing and collecting old master paintings, drawings, and sculptures
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Cosway’s works are represented in major collections including the National Portrait Gallery, London; Courtauld Institute, London; Royal Academy of Arts Collection, London; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Royal Collection, London; Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; Tate, London; Wallace Collection, London, and others.

The painting has an antique lining, age cracking, and very light retouching visible under UV light.