Two Veiled Young Women, probably Lilla Amnani and Her Sister

Cleveland Museum of Art

Two Veiled Young Women, probably Lilla Amnani and Her Sister

Richard CoswayLinkedCulture matchlcp-2234a2605da8

Date
1786
Medium
graphite, watercolor, red chalk on paper
Culture
England
Department
Drawings
Institution
Cleveland Museum of Art
Object ID
540588

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

Richard Cosway was a prolific painter in London, most well-known for his portrait miniatures and drawings, which he made both on commission and as personal exercises or mementos. This drawing features two women who may be fantasized versions of the two wives of Sidi Hadji Abdurrahman Adja, a Tripolitan ambassador who visited London in 1786. A published account of the ambassador’s home life circulated around this time. Cosway may have invented the ladies as a form of novelistic intrigue when he made a drawing featuring the ambassador. The unspecific attire of these two ladies, with vaguely Ottoman robes and vaguely Greek headdresses, has led scholars to believe that the artist contrived the ensembles from a costume book rather than from specific people.

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Provenance & credit

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Credit line
Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
Provenance
Richard Cosway (the artist) [1742–1821] | Maria Hadfield Cosway (1760-1838), Lodi | Gifted by the above as part of a large collection to the College Collegio delle Dame Inglesi, Lodi | 1948: Sisters of Charity of Maria Santissima Bambina, Lodi | Acquired from the above by Commander Gerald F. Barnett (1926-2011), Hampshire | 2015: Anthony Landsberg, London, England | David S. Lavender Antiques (sold as Abraham Pascalrid and his two wives) | 2015–19: Private collection, UK, until 2019 | ?–2023: (Philip Mould & Company, London, England), sold to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH | June 5, 2023–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

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