1786
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Two Veiled Young Women, probably Lilla Amnani and Her Sister is a 1786 by Richard Cosway, a Romanticism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see two young women in sheer veils, their faces half-hidden, standing close together. Their dresses are soft and flowing, with delicate lace and ribbons. Cosway painted these women after hearing stories about the wives of a visiting ambassador from Tripoli. He never met them—he just imagined what they might look like, adding a touch of mystery. The veils make the scene feel intimate, almost like a secret. If you like this quiet, dreamy style, look up *sfumato*—a technique that blends colors softly, like smoke.
Richard Cosway was a prolific painter in London, most well-known for his portrait miniatures and drawings, which he made both on commission and as personal exercises or mementos. This drawing features two women who may be fantasized versions of the two wives of Sidi Hadji Abdurrahman Adja, a Tripolitan ambassador who visited London in 1786. A published account of the ambassador’s home life circulated around this time. Cosway may have invented the ladies as a form of novelistic intrigue when he made a drawing featuring the ambassador.
The unspecific attire of these two ladies, with vaguely Ottoman robes and vaguely Greek headdresses, has led scholars to believe that the artist contrived the ensembles from a costume book rather than from specific people.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Richard Cosway (5 November 1742 – 4 July 1821) was a leading English portrait painter of the Georgian and Regency era, noted for his miniatures.
See the richer artist page
![A Greek woman[?]](https://pub-3a17a9933ad74fb28aa30fa758592f23.r2.dev/artworks/6cf3019da43d0709/thumb.webp)
