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Two Veiled Young Women, probably Lilla Amnani and Her Sister
About the Artwork
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.
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
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Richard Cosway (British, 1742–1821)
- Date
- 1786
- Medium
- graphite, watercolor, red chalk on paper
- Dimensions
- Matted: 38.1 x 29.7 cm (15 x 11 11/16 in.); Sheet: 33 x 25.7 cm (13 x 10 1/8 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
- Accession no.
- 2023.47
More by Richard Cosway in museum collections
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00011308
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