Anne Hoare, Mrs Richard Hoare (1737-1759) playing a Cittern
Francis Cotes (London 1726 - London 1770)
Category
Art / Drawings and watercolours
Date
1757 - 1759
Materials
Pastel on paper
Measurements
749 x 648 mm (29 1/2 x 25 1/2 in)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Stourhead, Wiltshire
NT 730761
Caption
There are no doubt earlier portraits of female sitters who were not professional musicians shown with a stringed instrument, but this nonetheless precedes two of the most celebrated: Greuze's Marquise de Bezons tuning her Guitar (Baltimore Museum of Art), which was exhibited at the Salon of 1759; and Gainsborough's Anne Ford (later Mrs Philip Thicknesse) seated with a cittern (Cincinatti Art Museum) painted in 1760. The latter was in fact at least an amateur musician, who had given public recitals, in spite of which Mrs Delaney wrote that she "should be very sorry to have anyone I loved set forth in such a manner" - although she was probably referring to the bold pose of it.
Summary
Pastel on paper, Anne Hoare, Mrs Richard Hoare (1737-1759) playing a Cittern by Francis Cotes RA (London 1725 - London 1770), 1757. A half-length portrait, seated, turned slightly to the right, gazing at the spectator, playing a cittern. She wears a satin dress embroidered with flowers and elaborately decorated with lace and lace collar. Daughter of Henry Hoare of Stourhead and Susan Colt. She married her cousin Richard Hoare, who was created a baronet only after her death in 1759. A companion to the signed and dated pastel portrait by Cotes of her husband is also at Stourhead, NT 730762 and, like its pendant, it was also copied in oils by Samuel Woodforde, NT 730206.
Makers and roles
Francis Cotes (London 1726 - London 1770), artist
References
Johnson 1976 Edward Mead Johnson, Francis Cotes, Oxford, 1976, p.60, no.72