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Historical Artist - Francis Cotes (1726 - 1770)
Francis Cotes began his career as a portraitist who worked in oils and pastels. His reputation
in England as a talented pastel painter was established by the 1760’s. He co-founded to
Society of Artists and was its director beginning in 1765. He also became a founding member of
the Royal Academy three years later. In his late career, Cotes painted mostly in oils, which
were less laborious and more lucrative. He died prematurely at the age of forty-four. Born in
London, the eldest son of Robert Cotes, an apothecary (Francis's younger brother Samuel Cotes
(1734–1818) also became an artist, specialising in miniatures), and trained with portrait
painter George Knapton (1698–1778) before setting up his own business in his father's
business premises in London's Cork Street — learning, incidentally, much about chemistry
to inform his making of pastels. An admirer of the pastel drawings of Rosalba Carriera, Cotes
concentrated on works in pastel and crayon (some of which became well-known as engravings), but
later added oil painting to his repertoire. In 1763, he bought a large house (later occupied by
George Romney) in Cavendish Square. One of the most fashionable portrait painters of his day,
Cotes helped found the Society of Artists and became its director in 1765. At the peak of his
powers, Cotes was invited to become one of the first members of the Royal Academy, but died just
two years later, aged 44, in Richmond.
Contemporary United Kingdom Artists
Art Galleries in the United Kingdom
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