Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cotes, Samuel

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1354133Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 12 — Cotes, Samuel1887Lionel Henry Cust

COTES, SAMUEL (1734–1818), miniature painter, was third son of Robert Cotes, mayor of Galway, who settled in London, adopting the medical profession, and married Elizabeth, daughter of Francis Lynn, chief secretary to the Royal African Company, by whom he was the father of Francis Cotes [q. v.] and Samuel. The latter was brought up by his father to the medical profession, but was encouraged by his brother's great success as a painter to throw over medicine for the fine arts. He received instruction from his brother, who greatly assisted him; and though he never attained the eminence his brother succeeded in doing, he became deservedly and highly esteemed as a portrait painter, and was reckoned the first miniature painter of his time. His crayon portraits were also much admired. He painted in miniature both on enamel and on ivory, and exhibited from 1760 to 1789 at the exhibitions of the Incorporated Society of Artists, of which he was a fellow, and at the Royal Academy. During this time he resided at 25 Percy Street, Rathbone Place. He was devotedly attached to his brother, and after the latter's death he painted a large miniature of him from memory. Cotes retired from active life some years before his death, and then resided in Paradise Row, Chelsea, where he died 7 March 1818 in his eighty-fifth year. He was twice married, first to a Miss Creswick, and secondly to Miss Sarah Shepherd, a lady of great attainments, especially as an artist, who died 27 Sept. 1814, aged 76. A portrait by him of Mrs. Yates, as Electra, was engraved in mezzotint by Philip Dawe, and a portrait of Thomas Pownall, governor of New Jersey, was similarly engraved by Richard Earlom.

[Redgrave's Dict. of English Artists; Gent. Mag. (1814) lxxxiv. 403, (1818) lxxxviii. 276; Edwards's Anecdotes of Painting; Chaloner Smith's Catalogue of British Mezzotinto Portraits; Catalogues of the Royal Academy and the Incorporated Society of Artists.]

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