Elizabeth Cust, Mrs Yorke (1750-1779)
Francis Cotes (London 1726 - London 1770)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1770
Materials
Oil, wood and canvas
Measurements
1255 mm (H)1005 mm (W)
Order this imageCollection
Erddig, Wrexham
NT 1151292
Caption
This portrait of Elizabeth Cust was commissioned to mark her marriage to Philip I Yorke (1743-1804) in 1770. She stands in a landscape posing as a Shepherdess and holds a crook decorated with flowers in her right hand. The costume, flowers and natural setting allude to notions of innocence and purity.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas. Painting of Elizabeth Cust, Mrs Yorke (1750-1779) by Francis Cotes, RA (London 1726 – London 1770), circa 1770. A three-quarter-length portrait, facing, head to left, dressed as a shepherdess in rose-pink dress and white lawn apron, holding a shepherdess's crook adorned with flowers in her right hand, and resting her left hand on her hip. Landscape background.
Provenance
Given by Philip Yorke III (1905 – 1978) along with the estate, house and contents to the National Trust in 1973
Marks and inscriptions
Verso: 'ELIZABETH YORKE, NEE CUST, BORN 1749, DIED 1779, BY FRANCIS COTES (label fragment in Store)
Makers and roles
Francis Cotes (London 1726 - London 1770), artist
References
Erddig 1800-29 Inventory of contents of Erddig, 1800-1829, "Mrs Yorke - - Cotes" Erddig 1914 Chronicles of Erthig on the Dyke by Albina Lucy Cust, (2 vols) 1914 , Vol.II. pp.319-20; pl. opp. p. 136 & p. 205 Steegman 1957 John Steegman, A Survey of Portraits in Welsh Houses, Vol.I: North Wales, Cardiff, 1957, p.95. Johnson 1976 Edward Mead Johnson, Francis Cotes, Oxford, 1976, p. 89, No. 235 Waterson, 1980: Merlin Waterson, The Servants' Hall. A Domestic History of Erddig, Routledge & Kegan 1980, p. 49 & fig. 30 (p. 43). Erddig, Clwyd: 1995 [The National Trust] 1995, p.45, illus p.15