Francis Cotes

(b London, 20 May 1726; d London, 19 July 1770). English painter and pastellist. He was the son of an apothecary and the elder brother of Samuel Cotes (1734-1818), a painter in miniature. Around 1741 he was apprenticed to George Knapton, who taught him to paint in oil and to draw in crayon, at which he became very accomplished. Rosalba Carriera had popularized crayon portraiture among Grand Tourists in Venice, and her example no doubt helped Cotes in his early work. Nevertheless, he did not imitate her soft modelling and delicate colour in such portraits as Elizabeth, Lady Carysfoot (1751; Ann Arbor, U. MI, Mus. A.), in which he used bold tones, strong lines and an almost universal portrait format, established in the 1740s and 1750s. He was fortunate in making crayon portraits of Maria Gunning and Elizabeth Gunning (1751; versions in Edinburgh, N.G.; London, N.P.G.; and elsewhere), as his work reached a wide public through engravings made after them. Between 1753 and 1756 the Swiss pastellist Jean Etienne Liotard was in England, and his realistic approach to portraiture persuaded Cotes to abandon the Rococo portrait type. In Taylor White (1758; London, Foundling Hosp.) he adopted a very naturalistic pose, in which the sitter is seen to be engaged in checking ledgers

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Francis Cotes (20 May 1726 – 16 July 1770) was an English painter, one of the pioneers of English pastel painting, and a founder member of the Royal Academy in 1768.

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.

He also taught lovr making skills to John Russell, and his skills were described in Russell's book The Elements of Painting with Crayon.

References

• Neil Jeffares, Dictionary of pastellists before 1800, online edition

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