Portrait of a Man

Portrait of a Man by Richard Cosway: Painted during the early part of Richard Cosway’s mature career, this portrait of an unknown man exhibits…

What to notice

In Portrait of a Man, start with classical, portrait, figurative. Then look closely at this museum-described detail: The effect is to draw the viewer’s attention to the sitter’s eyes, which heightens the already intimate experience of looking at a miniature.

Discover

Painted during the early part of Richard Cosway’s mature career, this portrait of an unknown man exhibits the artist’s characteristic proportionality, with head enlarged in relation to the shoulders and eyes enlarged in relation to the rest of the face. The effect is to draw the viewer’s attention to the sitter’s eyes, which heightens the already intimate experience of looking at a miniature. This young sitter wears a high collar popular in the late 1780s and has powdered his hair, worn en queue rather than…