Page 13 - Francis Cotes - A winning end-game

FRANCIS COTES, R.A.

(London 1726-1770)

Portrait of William Earle Welby (c. 1734-1815), of Denton, Lincolnshire and his
first wife, Penelope (1737-1771), playing chess, before a draped curtain.

Oil on canvas
53 1/4 x 60 in. (135.2 x 152.5cm)

PROVENANCE:

By descent in the sitters’ family until 2012.

EXHIBITED:

London, Royal Academy, 1769, no. 26, ‘A portrait of a lady and a gentleman at chess’.
London, Royal Academy, Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters and by
Deceased Masters of the British School, 1881, no. 49.

LITERATURE:

E.M. Johnson, Francis Cotes: Complete Edition with a Critical Essay and a
Catalogue, Oxford, 1976, pp. 99-100, no. 287, fig. 94.

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