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Dimensions: 200 by 136 cm.; 78 3/4 by 53 1/2 in.

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Provenance: PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION

George Clavering Nassau, Lord Fordwich, later 3rd Earl Cowper (1738-1789), Florence, by 1762;
Not recorded in a 1779 draft inventory of Lord Cowper's pictures in Italy and therefore possibly already sold in Italy by this date;
Perhaps bought in Italy by Thomas Grimston (1753-1821) of Kilnwick Hall, near Driffield, who also commissioned a second home, Grimston Garth House, Grimston, in 1784;
Thence by descent until sold ('The Property of a Gentleman'), London, Sotheby's, 5 July 1989, lot 69, for £82,000 to the present owner.

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Literature: G.L. Bianconi, Elogio storico del Cavaliere Anton Raffaele Mengs scritto dal consiglier Bianconi con un catalogo in fine delle opere da esso fatte, Milan 1780 (no page nos.);
Jansen, Oeuvres complètes d'Antoine-Raphael Mengs, premier peintre du Roi d'Espagne contenant différens Traitès sur la Theorie de la Peinture. Traduit de l'Italien, Paris 1786, vol. I, p. 16;
Prange, Des Ritters Anton Raphael Mengs ersten Mahlers Karl III. König in Spanien hinterlaßne Werke, Halle 1786, vol. I, p. 121;
G.N. de Azara and C. Fea, Opere di Antonio Raffaelo Mengs, primo Pittore del Re Cattolico Carlo III, Rome 1787, pp. XIX, XLIV, and XLVI;
G.N. Azara, The Works of Anthony Raphael Mengs. First Painter to his Catholic Majesty Charles III, London 1796, p. 5;
G.K. Nagler, Neues Allgemeines Künstler-Lexikon II, vol. IX, Munich 1840, p. 118 (where incorrectly stated as in the collection of the Duke of Northumberland);
C. Milanesi and C. Pini, Alcuni quadri della Galleria Rinuccini, descritti ed illustrati. Vendita 1 maggio 1852, Florence 1852, p. 90;
M.L. Boyle, Biographical Catalogue of the Portraits at Panshanger, London 1885, p. 442;
D. Honisch, Anton Raphael Mengs und die Bildform des Frühklassizismus, Recklinghausen 1965, p. 125, no. 254 (as recorded in the sources but not found);
H. von Erffa and A. Staley, The Paintings of Benjamin West, New Haven & London 1986, pp. 445-6, under no. 511;
S. Roettgen, in the exhibition catalogue Anton Raphael Mengs 1728-1779 and his British Patrons, London, Iveagh Bequest, 1993, pp. 30, 60, reproduced fig. 24;
G. Sestieri, Repertorio della Pittura Romana della fine del Seicento e del Settecento, Turin 1994, vol. I, p. 128;
S. Röttgen, Anton Raphael Mengs 1728 -1779, vol. I, Munich 1999, pp. 77-9, cat. no. 45, reproduced p. 78.

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Notes: This painting was commissioned from Mengs by the 3rd Earl Cowper, before the artist's departure from Rome to Spain in August 1761. The painting was probably completed in Spain since Benjamin West records, in a letter dated 1 September 1763, that Lord Fordwich had to arrange for the picture to be sent from Livorno (not Rome) to Florence so that he could make a copy of it (Ferens Art Gallery, Kingston-upon-Hull, 1762; for the letter see Röttgen, under Literature, p. 79, under WK 2). Cowper, who had left England to go on the Grand Tour in 1757 fell in love with the Marchesa Corsi and settled in Florence three years later. He became British Minister in Florence and in 1764 was made Earl, inheriting a fortune from his maternal grandfather Henry, 1st Earl of Grantham. In Italy he frequented the leading artists patronised by travelling Englishmen, such as Johann Zoffany, and he had a particularly good relationship with Mengs: he not only sat to him for a portrait (Paul Mellon Collection, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven) but Mengs also dedicated a self-portrait to him in 1774 (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; Röttgen, op. cit., p. 275, cat. no. 204, reproduced, and p. 347, cat. no. 279, reproduced).

A preparatory drawing for the composition, signed and dated 1760, was with Thomas Jenkins in Rome during the 18th century (according to an inscription on the verso of the sheet) and is now in a private collection, Germany (Röttgen, op. cit., p. 78, VZ 1, reproduced p. 77). Before the reappearance of this painting in 1989, Mengs' composition was known only from a reproductive engraving by Manuel Salvador Carmona of 1781 (ibid., pp. 78-9, GR 1, reproduced). According to Boyle (see Literature) the Madonna was modelled on Margareta Guazzi, an italian girl whom the artist had married in 1748.