(b London, 20 May 1726; d London, 19 July 1770). English painter and pastellist. He was the son of an apothecary and the elder brother of Samuel Cotes (1734–1818), a painter in miniature. Around 1741 he was apprenticed to George Knapton, who taught him to paint in oil and to draw in crayon, at which he became very accomplished. Rosalba Carriera had popularized crayon portraiture among Grand Tourists in Venice, and her example no doubt helped Cotes in his early work. Nevertheless, he did not imitate her soft modelling and delicate colour in such portraits as Elizabeth, Lady Carysfoot (1751; Ann Arbor, U. MI, Mus. A.), in which he used bold tones, strong lines and an almost universal portrait format, established in the 1740s and 1750s. He was fortunate in making crayon portraits of Maria Gunning and Elizabeth Gunning (1751; versions in Edinburgh, N.G.; London, N.P.G.; and elsewhere), as his work reached a wide public through engravings made after them. Between 1753 and 1756 the Swiss pastellist Jean Etienne Liotard was in England, and his realistic approach to portraiture persuaded Cotes to abandon the Rococo portrait type. In Taylor White (1758; London, Foundling Hosp.) he adopted a very naturalistic pose, in which the sitter is seen to be engaged in checking ledgers—an appropriate pose for the Treasurer of Thomas Coram’s hospital for abandoned children.

• Cotes, Francis
  • assistants
    • Toms, Peter
  • methods
    • Drapery painter
  • patrons and collectors
    • Hanover: (3) George III, King of Great Britain
    • Hoare (i)
  • pupils
    • Russell, John
  • reproductive prints by others
    • Mezzotint, §2(ii): 18th century
  • works
    • Frame, §IV, 7: Britain: Rococo
    • Frame, §IV, 8: Britain: Neo-classical