Page 16 - Francis Cotes - A winning end-game
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Technically, it is a bravura piece, with a lively tradition of Velasquez or Fragonard - tell their
and expressive use of paint, showing that Cotes own story.
could match, or even outdo, his contemporaries.
The deep blue of Welby’s coat and breeches, lll
in contrast to the modest lace of his necktie and
wrists, suggests the solid texture of high quality Cotes is showing off, partly, but not solely,
British cloth, while the shining buttons give a to please his clients. William Earle
slightly military air. We see that he comes from Welby, a confident young man of thirty, was
good stock, is a gentleman, accomplished, rich heir to a substantial estate at Denton in
yet modest; a young man, too, of a new Lincolnshire, between Grantham and Melton
generation, his hair cut short and un-powdered. Mowbray, including a fine old house
Penelope’s dress, with its frothing lace and pale (remodelled in 1815, but sadly demolished in
green ruching and bows is as grand as the dresses 1939) with an imposing gateway, wooded
worn by royal princesses in contemporary grounds, fish-ponds and ancient mineral springs.
portraits, and similar in style, and Cotes’s lively His father had been Sheriff of Lincolnshire–a
brushstrokes and highlights bring out with the post he would also later hold - and his mother
smoother painting of her creamy skin and her Catharine, nee Cholmondely, was also from a
dark hair, piled up and bound with flowers and distinguished local family. William grew up
pearls. Meanwhile, the soft green bows and the among the elite landed gentry, being educated at
ribbon that ties the uneven triple necklace of Eton and Clare College, Cambridge, and then
pearls, link her with a more a natural realm. The studying for the law as a member of the Middle
pearls themselves hark back to Lely’s court Temple, although he never seems to have gone
beauties, but are also a symbol of fertility: the to the bar. On 6 November 1766 he married
Welby’s first son, also named William, had Penelope, daughter of Sir John Glynne, a
been born the year before. strong and colourful character. A stalwart old-
fashioned Tory, Sheriff of Flintshire, builder of
The painting glints with meaning. A single Hawarden Castle, Glynne was an MP from
drop earring echoes the mild but deliciously 1753, known for his dislike of Pitt and his
mischievous gleam in Penelope’s eye. And even constant and not always wise interventions in
the tumbled chess pieces reflected in the shining debates: at the time Cotes was painting Penelope,
table top - another virtuoso touch with fine, he was loudly supporting the administration on
fast, wet-in-wet, alla prima painting are, in the
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