1785
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Dominant colour
George Clavering Cowper, 3rd Earl Cowper is a 1785 by Hugh Douglas Hamilton, a Romanticism work, depicting Ireland, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
A man in a blue coat and white sash stands beside a hunting dog. The dog wears a bright red collar and looks up at him. This portrait was made in Florence, where the man lived. He was part of a knightly hunting order, and the painting likely celebrates that honor. The dog’s red collar matches the sash—small details that tie the scene together. If you like this quiet, detailed style, look up *ireland, 18th century* for more portraits like it.
This pastel portrait of George Clavering Cowper, 3rd Earl Cowper (1738–1789), was made in Florence, the earl’s permanent home, by the most celebrated Irish portraitist of the Grand Tour. Cowper prominently wears the sash and star of the Order of St. Hubertus, a knightly order of aristocratic hunters to which he was inducted in March 1785. It seems likely that the bucolic scene was commissioned to commemorate the honor. Cowper’s hunting dog receives a tender pat on the head and wears a bold shining metal collar inscribed with Cowper’s name.
Pastel portraiture, which became fashionable in the 18th century, was prized for its powdery, matte surface, which created a fresco-like quality when placed in small rooms lit by candlelight.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Hugh Douglas Hamilton RHA (c. 1739 – 10 February 1808) was an Irish painter who specialised in portrait painting. He spent considerable periods in London and Rome before returning to Dublin in the early 1790s. Until the…
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