A fine and impressive pair of portraits showing a prosperous man and woman (presumably husband and wife) by the great pastelist and painter in oils, Francis Cotes. These portraits are early examples of Francis Cotes�s work in oils and they provide an enchanting snapshot of the middle classes of mid-Georgian England. Francis Cotes (1726-1770) For much of his career up to the late 1750s, Cotes had been a specialist in pastels, perfecting his use of the medium to produce naturalistic portraits that conveyed a sense of the sitter�s individual character. Although Cotes�s first portrait in oils is dated to 1753, it was not until the end of the decade that he began to work more extensively in the medium. Deeply impressed by the example of Allan Ramsay, who established his career in London following his return from Italy in 1757, Cotes began to develop a manner of painting that introduced something of the softness of the pastellist�s art to the more formal medium of oils on canvas. This pair of portraits dates to this earlier period and can be compared with Cotes�s portraits of Sarah Robinson (University of Southampton) and Mrs Hamilton of Raploch (Low Parks Museum) dated 1761 and 1762 respectively, when Cotes�s work still preserved the intimate mood of pastel portraiture before assuming a grander manner in the later 1760s.Cotes achieved the status of being one of the most talked-about figures in the London art world. To cement his profession success, in 1763, he took a lease on a house at 32 Cavendish Square, a fashionable and recently-developed part of Marylebone. The house included a room that he used for the teaching of his students, a studio in which he could paint his sitters and a gallery in which he could show examples of his work to prospective clients. As the 1760s wore on, Cotes came to be greatly influenced by Reynolds�s example, with his colouring becoming bol...