Biography

English miniaturist, draughtsman, dealer and collector, a pupil of Thomas Hudson. Probably the son of a schoolmaster, he showed a precocious talent for drawing and studied at Shipley's Drawing School in the Strand, where he won several prizes. He attended the Richmond House academy, set up by Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond, where he met Giovanni Battista Cipriani. He first exhibited at the Society of Artists in 1760, showing there again between 1767 and 1779. He also showed at the Free Society of Artists between 1761 and 1766. In 1769 he entered the Royal Academy Schools, becoming an ARA in 1770, when he began to exhibit at the Academy, and RA the following year.

A friend of the Prince of Wales (later Prince Regent), Cosway was by far the most fashionable miniature painter of his day, imparting to sitters an air of great elegance. The larger portrait in oils that he occasionally attempted are considered less successful. In 1781 Cosway married the Anglo-Florentine Maria Hadfield (1759-1838), who was also a miniaturist.