Frank Cadogan Cowper

Frank Cadogan Cowper
RA
Frank Cadogan Cowper RA
	Cowper in 1932
Born	16 October 1877; Wicken, Northamptonshire, England, United Kingdom
Died	17 November 1958 (aged 81); Cirencester, Gloucestershire, England, United Kingdom
Nationality	British
Alma mater	Royal Academy Schools
Known for	Painting
Notable work	Vanity (1907), The young Duchess (1917), La Belle Dame sans Merci (1926)
Movement	Pre-Raphaelite Romanticism
Parents	Frank Cowper; E. E. Cowper;
Relatives	Edward Cadogan (grandfather); Edward Cadogan (cousin); Sir William Carlile (uncle);
Awards	Royal Academician RWA Academician
Patron(s)	Evelyn Waugh

Frank Cadogan Cowper RA RWS RP RWA (16 October 1877 – 17 November 1958)^[1] was an English painter and illustrator of portraits, historical and literary scenes, also described as "The Last Pre-Raphaelite".^[2]^[3]^[4]

Life and work

Frank Cadogan Cowper was born in Wicken, Northamptonshire, the son of an author and early pioneer of coastal cruising in yachts, Frank Cowper, and grandson of Edward Cadogan, the Rector of Wicken.

Cadogan Cowper was educated at Cranleigh before going on to study art, first at St John's Wood Art School in 1896 and then at the Royal Academy Schools from 1897 to 1902.^[5] He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1899 and achieved critical acclaim two years later with his An Aristocrat Answering the Summons to Execution, Paris 1791 (1901). In 1902, Cadogan Cowper spent six months as an apprentice helping Edwin Austin Abbey RA complete a monumental canvas painting The Coronation of King Edward VII (now in the Royal Collection) before travelling to Italy to continue his studies.^[6]^[7]

Cadogan Cowper worked in oils, tempera and watercolours, and simultaneously worked as a book illustrator, providing the illustrations for Sir Sidney Lee's The Imperial Shakespeare. He contributed to a mural in the Houses of Parliament in 1910-12 along with John Byam Liston Shaw, Ernest Board and Henry Arthur Payne.^[8]^[9]^[10]^[11]

As art trends changed, Cadogan Cowper increasingly exhibited his portrait paintings and still continued to produce historical and literary works of art.^[12]^[13]

Cadogan Cowper retired from London and moved to Gloucestershire. One of his paintings, The Ugly Duckling, was voted "their favourite painting" by visitors to the Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum in 2005.^[14]

The record price for a Cadogan Cowper painting at sale is £469,250 for Our Lady of the Fruits of the Earth (1917) at Christie's in London on 17 December, 2011.^[15]

The National Gallery of London is staging an exhibition Saint Francis of Assisi which includes the work of Frank Cadogan Cowper until 30 July, 2023.^[16]^[17]

In February 2024, the Musei di San Domenico in Forlì, Italy, will host the exhibition Pre-Raphaelites: A Modern Renaissance that will feature the work of Cadogan Cowper Vanity.^[18]

Awards

Royal Academy / A.R.A 1907 / R.A 1934
Royal Watercolour Society / A.R.W.S. 1904 / R.W.S. 1911
Royal Society of Portrait Painters / R.P. 1921
Royal West of England Academy / RWA Academician
The Society of Graphic Fine Art / From the early days of the Society: Hon. Member 1920
Royal Academy Schools Competition silver medal and Armitage Prize, 1899 ^[19]

Patron(s)

Studio Locations

1902 (6 mos)》 Morgan Hall, Fairford, Gloucestershire
1903 – 1905 》 1 Edwardes Square Studios, Kensington, London
1905 – 1909 》 38 Barrow Hill Road, St John's Wood, N.W., London
1909 – 1924 》 2 Edwardes Square Studios, Kensington, London
1924 – 1940 》 3 Tite Street, SW3, London
1940 – 1944 》 The Studio, Les Blanches, St Martin's, Jersey
1944 – 1951 》 Hughenden House, Fairford, Gloucestershire
1951 – 1958 》 Summerton, Berkeley Road, Cirencester, Wiltshire

Gallery

Fanny, Sketch of a girl in crinoline dress (1903)
Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon before Papal Legates at Blackfriars, 1529 (1910)
The Morning of the Nativity (1912)

List of paintings (selection)

Rapunzel (Singing from the Tower) (1900)
Hamlet - The churchyard scene (1902)
Lady Clare and her lily-white doe (1902)
Francis of Assisi and the Heavenly Melody (1904) Exhibited at the National Gallery, London in 2023.
St Agnes in Prison Receiving from Heaven the 'Shining White Garment' (1905)
La Belle Dame sans Merci (1905 ) Exhibited at the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours the same year; The International Fine Arts Exhibition, Rome, Italy in 1911.
Molly, Duchess of Nona (1905)
A Merciless Beauty (1906)
Mariana in the South (1906) Exhibited at the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours the same year.
Vanity (1907) Diploma Work for the Royal Academy
Love Potion (1907) Exhibited at the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours the same year.
How the Devil, Disguised (1907) Exhibited at the Royal Academy and Fine Arts Society the same year.
Venetian Ladies Listening to the Serenade (1909) Exhibited at the Royal Academy the same year.
Erasmus and Thomas More Visit the Children of Henry VII at Greenwich, 1499 (1910)
Lucretia Borgia Reigns in the Vatican in the Absence of Pope Alexander VI (1908–14)
The Love Letter (1911) Exhibited at the Royal Academy the same year.
Sir William Walter Carlile, 1st Baronet, OBE, DL, JP (1862–1950) (1913)
The Hon. Mrs. Hanbury-Tracy (1914) Exhibited at the Royal Academy the same year.
Faust's first sight of Marguerite (1915) Exhibited at the Royal Academy the same year.
Our Lady of the Fruits of the Earth (1917)
The Blue Bird (1918) Exhibited at the Royal Academy the same year
The Cathedral Scene from 'Faust': Margaret tormented by the Evil Spirit (1919)
Vanity (1919)
Fair Rosamund and Queen Eleanor (1920) Exhibited at the Royal Academy the same year.
Violet Miriam Nightingale Clay, Lady Vernon (1920)
Mrs E.H. Evans–Combe (1920)
Lady Gordon Taylor (1923) Private Collection
The Damozel of the Lake, called Nimue the Enchantress (Malory's "Le Morte d'Arthur") (1924)
Lady Hildebrand Harmsworth (1925) Exhibited at the Royal Academy the same year.
La Belle Dame sans Merci (1926) Exhibited at the Royal Academy the same year.
Margaret, Daughter of Montague Napier, Esq. (1926)
The Hon. Sackville-West (1927) Exhibited at the Royal Academy the same year.
Titania Sleeps (1928)
Sir Havilland De Sausmarez (1930) Exhibited at the Royal Academy the same year.
Mrs. Albert S. Kerry (1930) Exhibited at the Royal Academy the same year.
Pamela, Daughter of Lieut. Col. M.F. Halford (1930) Exhibited at the Royal Academy the same year.
Lilla, Daughter of E.M. Maclaurin, Esq. Married to N.H. Signor Sacra De Jordanow. (1930)
Miss Mona Sayer, Grand-daughter of Sir Walter Maude, KCIE CSI (1936)
The Fortune–Teller: "Beware of a Dark Lady" (1940)
La Belle Dame sans Merci (1946)
The Ugly Duckling (1950)
The Legend of Sir Perceval (1952–53)
The Four Queens Find Lancelot Sleeping (1954)
Elizabeth, Daughter of Major General F.V.B. Willis (1955) Exhibited at the Royal Academy the same year.
The Golden Bowl (1956) Exhibited at the Royal Academy the same year.
Self-Portrait (1957) Exhibited at the Royal Academy the same year.
The Patient Griselda
Portrait of Professor Rey
Lancelot slays the Caitiff Knight Sir Tarquin and rescues the fair lady and the knight in captivity
Eve

References

^ "Obituary: Frank Cadogan Cowper", The Times, 20 November 1958.
^ Buckle, Scott Thomas, (2005). Frank Cadogan Cowper (British, 1877-1958) Archived 2008-01-30 at the Wayback Machine at artmagick.com (Accessed 7 July 2023).
^ Waterman, Amanda B. (2008). Thesis. "Frank Cadogan Cowper: The Last Pre-Raphaelite". University of Washington Press.
^ Braddock, Alan C. et al. (October 26, 2021). "Picture Ecology: Art and Ecocriticism in Planetary Perspective". Princeton University Art Museum. p. 71, 78. "Frank Cadogan Cowper (1877–1958) was called “the last of the Pre- Raphaelites” for his adherence to the group's principles decades after its dissolution; Cowper, who specialised in historical, literary, and religious subjects, was a fashionable artist at the beginning of the twentieth century—Evelyn Waugh was his major patron, and his paintings were favorably received at Royal Academy exhibitions in London, including by the influential art dealer Joseph Duveen." ISBN 9780691236018
^ "RA Collection: Profile Frank Cadogan Cowper RA (1877–1958)". Retrieved 5 July 2023.
^ Staff writer (1905). "Molly, Duchess of Nona painted by F. Cadogan Cowper". Biography. The Art Journal, London. pp.348–349. "Mr. F. Cadogan Cowper, whose ‘Molly’ was one of the admired drawings at the extraordinarily successful summer exhibition of the Old Water-Colour Society, has rapidly come to the fore. Still well under thirty, he got his earliest art training in the St. John’s Wood Schools, passing in 1897 to those of the Royal Academy, where for five years he studied. By invitation he was for six months in the studio of Mr. Abbey, and afterwards sojourned for a time in Italy. He has been an exhibitor at Burlington House since 1899, and in 1901 his picture of a Paris aristocrat answering to the summons of execution in 1793 was hung on the line, his ‘Hamlet’ (the churchyard scene) of the following year being bought by the Queensland Government for the Brisbane National Gallery. In the spring of 1904 he was elected an associate of the Old Water-Colour Society, and this year the Chantrey Bequest purchased his ‘St. Agnes in Prison.’ This ‘St. Agnes’ is among the works which cause him to be ranked as a prominent neo-Preraphaelite."
^ Cox, Devon (2022). "The Street of Wonderful Possibilities—Whistler, Wilde and Sargent in Tite Street". Aurum Press Ltd., London, England. p. 264. "Cowper had succeeded in attracting Abbey's attention and was invited to Tite Street to assist with the completion of the coronation picture." ISBN 9780711274532
^ "The Historian 156: The magazine of the Historical Association". 3 February 2023. Retrieved 6 July 2023. Cover image: 'The New Learning', c. 1910, by Frank Cadogan Cowper. Erasmus and Thomas More visit the children of Henry VII at Greenwich in 1499.
^ "UK Parliament: Heritage Collections: Frank Cadogan Cowper". 1910. Retrieved 6 July 2023. Erasmus and Thomas More visit the children of King Henry VII at Greenwich, 1499, Mural by Frank Cadogan Cowper. Oil painting.
^ Amanda B. Waterman, PhD (1 January 2019). "Parliamentary Murals of the East Corridor (1910): Constructing a British Identity in the Edwardian Era". Annual Meeting for the Western Conference for British Studies.
^ By Natural-Colour Photography: Royal Academy Pictures (May 25, 1912). "Decorations in the Houses of Parliament — F. Cadogan Cowper, A.R.A." Supplement To The Illustrated London News.
^ Marmor, Lail A. (May 2013). "Re-Presenting Rossetti: The Art of Frank Cadogan Cowper". University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Press.
^ Thiele, Madeleine Emerald (2012). "Dialogue and Descent; Frank Cadogan Cowper & John Everett Millais". University of Bristol. Retrieved 7 July 2023. .. but I would say that Frank Cadogan Cowper was the twentieth century keeper of a nineteenth century Avalon.
^ "Ronald Summerfield Collection at Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum". 11 September 2013. Retrieved 6 July 2023. A highlight of his collection and one which had great meaning for Ron Summerfield personally is the portrait by Frank Cadogan Cowper (1877-1958), the Ugly Duckling.
^ Staff writer (9 December 2011). "World News: Auctioned art set to fetch £4.5m". Irish Independent. Retrieved 6 July 2023. Among other highlights were the original painting of the famous Christmas card design Our Lady of the Fruits of the Earth, by Frank Cadogan Cowper.
^ "Saint Francis of Assisi-Exhibitions-National Gallery, London". Retrieved 5 July 2023.
^ Dickie, Amanda C. (24 May 2023). "St Francis of Assisi at the National Gallery". ICN, London, UK. Retrieved 6 July 2023. and Pre-Raphaelite Frank Cadogan Cowper's luminous 'St Francis of Assisi and the Heavenly Melody', 1904, are yet more highlights.
^ "Pre-Raphaelites: A Modern Renaissance". University of York, Dept. of History of Art. 17 April 2023. Retrieved 10 July 2023. Opening in February 2024 at the Musei di San Domenico in Forlì, near Bologna, is the exhibition Pre-Raphaelites: A Modern Renaissance. It will trace the profound impact of historical Italian art on the Pre-Raphaelite movement between the 1840s and 1920s by placing British works alongside their Italian prototypes.
^ "The Royal Academy and "Prix de Rome" Competitions". The Magazine of Art. Marion Harry Spielmann, Petter and Gallpin. 1900. p. 183. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
^ Cox, Devon (2022). "The Street of Wonderful Possibilities—Whistler, Wilde and Sargent in Tite Street". Aurum Press Ltd., London, England. pp.206–209, 248. "Fortunately for Cowper there were still patrons like the writer Evelyn Waugh and the Wills Family of Miserden Park, who ensured that his subject pictures found their way to appreciative homes." ISBN 9780711274532

External links

The Tate [2] F. Cadogan Cowper RA paintings
Profile F. Cadogan Cowper RA on Royal Academy Collections
13 artworks by or after Frank Cadogan Cowper at the Art UK site
Portraits of Frank Cadogan Cowper at the National Portrait Gallery, London
"Cowper, Frank Cadogan". Who's Who. A & C Black. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
"COWPER Frank Cadogan 1877-1958 | Artist Biographies". www.artbiogs.co.uk. Retrieved 13 July 2023.
F. Cadogan Cowper at Library of Congress
F. Cadogan Cowper RA online at Artcyclopedia
F. Cadogan Cowper RA biography and paintings at Art Renewal Center Museum
F. Cadogan Cowper biography at Modernist Journals Project
F. Cadogan Cowper at The Leicester Galleries (Peter Nahum)
F. Cadogan Cowper short biography and works at Celtic Twilight

[times-1] "Obituary: Frank Cadogan Cowper", The Times, 20 November 1958.

[art-2] Buckle, Scott Thomas, (2005). Frank Cadogan Cowper (British, 1877-1958) Archived 2008-01-30 at the Wayback Machine at artmagick.com (Accessed 7 July 2023).

[3] Waterman, Amanda B. (2008). Thesis. "Frank Cadogan Cowper: The Last Pre-Raphaelite". University of Washington Press.

[4] Braddock, Alan C. et al. (October 26, 2021). "Picture Ecology: Art and Ecocriticism in Planetary Perspective". Princeton University Art Museum. p. 71, 78. "Frank Cadogan Cowper (1877–1958) was called “the last of the Pre- Raphaelites” for his adherence to the group's principles decades after its dissolution; Cowper, who specialised in historical, literary, and religious subjects, was a fashionable artist at the beginning of the twentieth century—Evelyn Waugh was his major patron, and his paintings were favorably received at Royal Academy exhibitions in London, including by the influential art dealer Joseph Duveen." ISBN 9780691236018

[5] "RA Collection: Profile Frank Cadogan Cowper RA (1877–1958)". Retrieved 5 July 2023.

[6] Staff writer (1905). "Molly, Duchess of Nona painted by F. Cadogan Cowper". Biography. The Art Journal, London. pp.348–349. "Mr. F. Cadogan Cowper, whose ‘Molly’ was one of the admired drawings at the extraordinarily successful summer exhibition of the Old Water-Colour Society, has rapidly come to the fore. Still well under thirty, he got his earliest art training in the St. John’s Wood Schools, passing in 1897 to those of the Royal Academy, where for five years he studied. By invitation he was for six months in the studio of Mr. Abbey, and afterwards sojourned for a time in Italy. He has been an exhibitor at Burlington House since 1899, and in 1901 his picture of a Paris aristocrat answering to the summons of execution in 1793 was hung on the line, his ‘Hamlet’ (the churchyard scene) of the following year being bought by the Queensland Government for the Brisbane National Gallery. In the spring of 1904 he was elected an associate of the Old Water-Colour Society, and this year the Chantrey Bequest purchased his ‘St. Agnes in Prison.’ This ‘St. Agnes’ is among the works which cause him to be ranked as a prominent neo-Preraphaelite."

[7] Cox, Devon (2022). "The Street of Wonderful Possibilities—Whistler, Wilde and Sargent in Tite Street". Aurum Press Ltd., London, England. p. 264. "Cowper had succeeded in attracting Abbey's attention and was invited to Tite Street to assist with the completion of the coronation picture." ISBN 9780711274532

[8] "The Historian 156: The magazine of the Historical Association". 3 February 2023. Retrieved 6 July 2023. Cover image: 'The New Learning', c. 1910, by Frank Cadogan Cowper. Erasmus and Thomas More visit the children of Henry VII at Greenwich in 1499.

[9] "UK Parliament: Heritage Collections: Frank Cadogan Cowper". 1910. Retrieved 6 July 2023. Erasmus and Thomas More visit the children of King Henry VII at Greenwich, 1499, Mural by Frank Cadogan Cowper. Oil painting.

[10] Amanda B. Waterman, PhD (1 January 2019). "Parliamentary Murals of the East Corridor (1910): Constructing a British Identity in the Edwardian Era". Annual Meeting for the Western Conference for British Studies.

[11] By Natural-Colour Photography: Royal Academy Pictures (May 25, 1912). "Decorations in the Houses of Parliament — F. Cadogan Cowper, A.R.A." Supplement To The Illustrated London News.

[12] Marmor, Lail A. (May 2013). "Re-Presenting Rossetti: The Art of Frank Cadogan Cowper". University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Press.

[13] Thiele, Madeleine Emerald (2012). "Dialogue and Descent; Frank Cadogan Cowper & John Everett Millais". University of Bristol. Retrieved 7 July 2023. .. but I would say that Frank Cadogan Cowper was the twentieth century keeper of a nineteenth century Avalon.

[14] "Ronald Summerfield Collection at Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum". 11 September 2013. Retrieved 6 July 2023. A highlight of his collection and one which had great meaning for Ron Summerfield personally is the portrait by Frank Cadogan Cowper (1877-1958), the Ugly Duckling.

[15] Staff writer (9 December 2011). "World News: Auctioned art set to fetch £4.5m". Irish Independent. Retrieved 6 July 2023. Among other highlights were the original painting of the famous Christmas card design Our Lady of the Fruits of the Earth, by Frank Cadogan Cowper.

[16] "Saint Francis of Assisi-Exhibitions-National Gallery, London". Retrieved 5 July 2023.

[17] Dickie, Amanda C. (24 May 2023). "St Francis of Assisi at the National Gallery". ICN, London, UK. Retrieved 6 July 2023. and Pre-Raphaelite Frank Cadogan Cowper's luminous 'St Francis of Assisi and the Heavenly Melody', 1904, are yet more highlights.

[18] "Pre-Raphaelites: A Modern Renaissance". University of York, Dept. of History of Art. 17 April 2023. Retrieved 10 July 2023. Opening in February 2024 at the Musei di San Domenico in Forlì, near Bologna, is the exhibition Pre-Raphaelites: A Modern Renaissance. It will trace the profound impact of historical Italian art on the Pre-Raphaelite movement between the 1840s and 1920s by placing British works alongside their Italian prototypes.

[19] "The Royal Academy and "Prix de Rome" Competitions". The Magazine of Art. Marion Harry Spielmann, Petter and Gallpin. 1900. p. 183. Retrieved 24 July 2023.

[20] Cox, Devon (2022). "The Street of Wonderful Possibilities—Whistler, Wilde and Sargent in Tite Street". Aurum Press Ltd., London, England. pp.206–209, 248. "Fortunately for Cowper there were still patrons like the writer Evelyn Waugh and the Wills Family of Miserden Park, who ensured that his subject pictures found their way to appreciative homes." ISBN 9780711274532

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v t e Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (paintings)
William Holman Hunt John Everett Millais Dante Gabriel Rossetti James Collinson William Michael Rossetti Frederic George Stephens Thomas Woolner
Associated artists and figures	Lawrence Alma-Tadema George Price Boyce John Brett Ford Madox Brown Lucy Madox Brown Richard Burchett Edward Burne-Jones Georgiana Burne-Jones James Campbell John Collier Charles Allston Collins Frank Cadogan Cowper Evelyn De Morgan Walter Deverell Henry Treffry Dunn William Dyce Henry Holiday Arthur Hughes Edward Robert Hughes Frederic Leighton Robert Braithwaite Martineau Louisa Beresford, Marchioness of Waterford William Morris Alexander Munro Joseph Noel Paton Valentine Cameron Prinsep Christina Rossetti John Ruskin Emma Sandys Frederick Sandys Thomas Seddon Elizabeth Siddal James Smetham Rebecca Solomon Simeon Solomon John Roddam Spencer Stanhope Marie Spartali Stillman John Melhuish Strudwick Algernon Charles Swinburne Henry Wallis John William Waterhouse William James Webbe William Lindsay Windus
Some well-known works (period and post-period)	Ophelia Christ in the House of His Parents A Converted British Family Sheltering a Christian Missionary from the Persecution of the Druids Ecce Ancilla Domini Mariana The Light of the World Our English Coasts ('Strayed Sheep') The Scapegoat Paolo and Francesca da Rimini The Last of England Work The Awakening Conscience The Hireling Shepherd April Love Found Autumn Leaves Bocca Baciata Oxford Union murals Lady Lilith Roman Widow Mary Magdalene The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple Morgan le Fay Beata Beatrix The Shadow of Death Proserpine A Vision of Fiammetta Pygmalion and the Image series The Beloved Cymon and Iphigenia King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid The Day Dream The Golden Stairs Dante and Beatrice Love's Messenger The Magic Circle The Legend of Briar Rose The Lady of Shalott (Waterhouse) The Roses of Heliogabalus Lilith Eos Flaming June Hope Hylas and the Nymphs Lady Godiva The Love Potion The Lady of Shalott (Hunt) I Am Half-Sick of Shadows, Said the Lady of Shalott
Models	Elizabeth Siddal Fanny Cornforth Effie Gray Sophie Gray Annie Miller Jane Morris Marie Spartali Stillman Alexa Wilding Maria Zambaco Dorothy Dene Fanny Eaton Ruth Herbert
Related	The Germ Hogarth Club Morris & Co. Rossetti and His Circle (1922 book) Dante's Inferno (1967 film) The Love School (1975 series) Desperate Romantics (2009 series) Effie Gray (2014 film)

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International	ISNI VIAF FAST WorldCat
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